received 20 of them – a move to select
candidates for the upcoming 10th general election.
Mrinal Kanti Das, member secretary
of the nomination paper sale committee, said the party earned Tk169.5m on
the first day from the sale of nomination papers, each costing Tk25,000.
As of yesterday, Dhaka division
stands first with the highest sale of 215

Three ministers have dropped a hint
about taking tough action against
Khaleda Zia saying that the government might even go so far as to arrest
her, if needed.
When asked about the rumour
of Khaleda’s house arrest, the Environment and Forests Minister Hasan
Mahmud, after a meeting in his office
with acting US ambassador to Dhaka
John Danilowcz, said: “If Khaleda Zia
is under house arrest how she can hold
meeting with her party leaders. But the
government may consider it, if needed,
to ensure public safety.”
Information Minister Hasanul Haq
Inu urged the opposition to join the dialogue at a discussion at the press club
yesterday. He, however, on Saturday
told reporters at Dhaka University that
the government might arrest Khaleda.
“The five opposition leaders were arrested as they instigated violence during the shutdowns. They can’t avoid the
liability. We have invited the opposition
to unconditional talks,” he said.
State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam
yesterday warned the opposition saying: “Opposition leader Khaleda Zia may
also be arrested like other senior BNP
leaders if the opposition-sponsored
shutdowns descend into anarchy.”
“The opposition has become a
threat to lives and properties of people.
Khaleda Zia and other top BNP leaders,

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

 PAGE 2 COLUMN 6

They are frustrated by central leaders’
‘inaction,’ but still keep morale high
Biswas—were louder in their home
kar Ali Manik and
n Julfi
towns than in Dhaka on Saturday, the
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
The grassroots of the BNP have been
left without any instructions on carrying forward the movement and organisational activities in the crucial time
as sudden crackdown on the party top
brass has pushed the central leadership
in trauma.
The role of central leaders, particularly those in Dhaka city unit, after
Friday’s arrest of three standing committee members and raid at houses of
several others frustrated and angered
the leaders at the district and upazila
levels.
They, however, have still kept the
morale high, saying the rank-andfile members of the main opposition
are ready to march toward Dhaka for
tougher street movements to compel
the government to meet their demand.
Protests against the arrest of three
central leaders—Moudud Ahmed, MK
Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah—along
with party chief’s adviser Abdul Awal
Mintoo and personal aide Shimul

New law curtails
ACC’s authority
n Kamran Reza Chowdhury
All efforts of politicians, diplomats
and civil society members went in
vain as parliament yesterday passed
amendment to the Anti-Corruption
Commission Act 2004 incorporating a
controversial provision curtailing the
commission’s authority to file cases
against the public servants.
The Anti-Corruption Commission
Bill 2013 that the House passed by voice
vote in absence of main opposition
 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

day before the 84-hour countrywide
shutdown began.
Extension of the three-day hartal by
12 hours was the only response came
after the Friday night’s crackdown,
which left Ruhul Kabir Rizvi almost the
lone spokesperson for the party during
the toughest ever time for the party.
The Dhaka Tribune correspondents
talked with a number of district and
Upazilla level BNP leaders to know
about their plans and activities to cope
up with the latest crisis following the
Friday’s crackdown.
“We are observing the situation in
Dhaka,” said Azizur Rahman, Cox’s
Bazar district BNP leader. “The movement is more vigorous at the grassroots
level than in Dhaka,” he claimed.
“The movement has to be waged in
Dhaka. But the leaders there are failing
to do so.”
Aziz, who is also president of the
district’s Shechchhasebak Dal, BNP’s
wing of volunteers, said they did not
 PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Jamaat-e-Islami, using children as human shield, brought out a procession during hartal in Meherpur yesterday

Awami League in full election mood
n Muhammad Zahidul Islam

Amidst hartal enforced by the BNP-led
opposition alliance, the Awami League
activists thronged the party office in
the capital yesterday with enthusiasm as the ruling party started selling
nomination papers for the next general
election.
The aspirants with their supporters chanting slogans started gathering

Siddikur clinches Indian Open
n Raihan Mahmood
Bangladeshi golfing legend Siddikur
Rahman rewrote the history by winning the title of the Hero Honda Indian
Open, his second Asian Tour title, at
the Delhi Golf Club yesterday.
The 29-year-old, who led the event
from day one, played a three-over 75
in his total of 14-under 274. Indian
Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chowrasia
finished one shot behind with
an even-par 72 to finish with a total of
13-under 275.
DETAILS ON PAGE 13

DHAKA TRIBUNE

there in the morning when AL General
Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam formally
announced the beginning of the elec-

P2 PROSECUTORS IN RACE
tioneering process at the party’s central
office at Bangabandhu Avenue in a festive mood.
The party sold 678 nomination
forms on the first day yesterday and

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, November 11, 2013

BNP leaders break
hartal to meet
party chief
n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia skips the
prime minister’s invitation or cancels
important schedules like meeting with
the Indian president during hartals
called by the party or its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami. Even she does not drive
from her residence to office, both in the
city’s Gulshan area, on a hartal day.
But a group of pro-BNP lawyers and
other party leaders came to see her riding
personal vehicles yesterday, the first day
of 84-hour hartal, when pickets were trying to force all modes of transports away
from roads in Dhaka and elsewhere.
Learning the fact from her security
adviser after the visitors left her Gulshan residence, Khaleda expressed her
grievances and asked her security staff
not to allow anyone inside, a personal
aide of Khaleda told the Dhaka Tribune
last night.
Visitors included pro-BNP lawyers and party leaders Joynal Abedin,
Sanaullah Miah, Khorshed Mia Alam,
Kaiser Kamal and Golam Mostafa.
Witnesses said chairperson’s adviser
Osman Farruk also came to the party
chief’s residence riding a luxurious car,

but angry Khaleda refused to see him.
Opposition women MPs, who
brought out a procession on the Jatiya
Sangsad premises yesterday, were seen
arriving there on cars, witnesses said.
Earlier, Khaleda discussed the latest
political situation with the team of lawyers in an hour-long meeting.
After the informal meeting, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, adviser to the
BNP chairperson, said Khaleda Zia was
rigid on her stance of holding elections
under a non-partisan government.
“She (Khaleda Zia) blamed the government for the prevailing political
stalemate. BNP will not backtrack on the
movement,” he said quoting Khaleda. He
also said they discussed the legal aspects
to get the arrested BNP leaders released.
After a meeting with the party chief,
her adviser Shahjahan Omar said,
“Madam [Khaleda] has instructed the
party leaders and workers to enforce
hartal more stringently.”
Meanwhile, prompted by reports
published in a section of media that
water line to Khaleda’s residence was
snapped, a team of Dhaka Wasa visited the house and reportedly found the
pipeline okay. l

Awami League General Secretary Sayed Ashraful Islam collect the nomination form for Gopalganj 3 constituency on behalf of party
president, Sheikh Hasina, yesterday at the capital’s Awami League office in Bangabandhu Avenue
DHAKA TRIBUNE

AL selling tickets for
one-sided polls: BNP

War crimes prosecutors gear
up for election race

n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

n Udisa Islam

Main opposition BNP has alleged that
the ruling party selling nomination papers is a projection of the government’s
conspiracy to hold one-sided polls.
The party also alleged that the government had adopted an “evil strategy” to isolate Khaleda Zia from her party colleagues by confining her.
“The Awami League has started selling nomination forms. It is evident that
they are walking towards their conspiracy of holding elections unilaterally.
They do not want a dialogue and compromise for resolving the crisis,” Ruhul
Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary general of
BNP, told reporters at briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday.
Generally, such press briefings remain packed with party leaders and
activists. But yesterday, there was no
one else at the briefing apart from the
party’s executive committee member
Belal Ahmed and some of other staffs
of the Nayapaltan office. Even the assistants and office secretaries were nowhere to be seen around.

Rizvi claimed that on the first day of
the 84-hour nationwide hartal, more
than 700 people were arrested, around
1,800 injured and cases filed against
more than 8,000 opposition leaders
and activists.
Rejecting the government’s claim
that law enforcers were deployed in
front of BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s house
for security reasons, Rizvi said: “We
think that in the name of security, the
government has taken the strategy to
confine the leader of the opposition. It
is a repressive act.”
Quoting newspapers, Rizvi alleged
that the water supply to the opposition
chief’s Gulshan residence had been cut
off and no one had been allowed to take
in food for her. “The people of the country are concerned about these incidents.”
“We think the government has chosen such a repressive path to weaken the BNP chairperson mentally. We
strongly condemned such a move.”
At the briefing, Rizvi also told journalists that oxygen carrying vehicles
would remain out of the hartal purview. l

New law curtails ACC’s authority
 PAGE 1 COLUMN 5

BNP, also forces the criminal courts to
seek permission from the government
before taking criminal charges into
cognizance against judges, magistrates
and public servants.
Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman M Bodiuzzaman yesterday said he
did not have clear idea about the provisions of the bill.
When asked about a provision yesterday, he replied: “I am unaware of
the provisions that were passed at the
parliament and will not comment until
I get a copy of the bill.”
The original the Anti-Corruption
Commission Act 2004, passed by the
then BNP government, authorised the
graft busters to try criminal charges.
Begum Matia Chowdhury, the minister in-charge of the cabinet division
in parliamentary affairs, on February

28, 2011, initiated the Anti-Corruption
Commission Bill 2013 proposing that
the ACC and the criminal courts must
seek government sanction for disposal of corruption charges against public
servants in line with section 197 of the
code of criminal procedure.
The then ACC chairman Golam Rahman told a press conference that the
passage of the law would turn the commission into a “toothless tiger.”
The parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry, which scrutinised the legislative proposal, opposed the government move to curtail
the ACC’s authority.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith
also sent a letter to the parliamentary standing committee opposing the
amendment proposal.
A team of diplomats from the European countries met senior government

nomination forms. As part of the party
tradition, Syed Ashraf bought a form
for Awami League President Sheikh
Hasina for Gopalganj 3 constituency. Some top leaders of the party also
bought nomination forms.
They are Syed Ashraful Islam, Deputy Leader of the Parliament Syeda
Sajeda Chowdhury, Home Minister
Dr Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir, Foreign
Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, former information minister Abul Kalam
Azad, State Minister for Housing Abdul
Mannan, State Minister for Youth and
Sports Ahad Ali Sarker and lawmaker
Asaduzzaman Noor.
The sale of nomination papers
kicked off amid slogans by party activists who cheered the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, AL
Chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and respective candidates.
Ashraf, after the inauguration of
the sale, said people would cast their
votes without facing any obstacle, and
if anybody tried to create anarchy, that
would not be good for democracy.
The top leader of the ruling party also
expected that like AL all other political
parties would start selling nomination
forms for the next general election.
AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury, advocate Sahara Khatun, joint
general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, organising secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, AFM Bahauddin Nasim, BM Mozammel Huq, labour affairs
secretary Habibur Rahman Siraj and
Dhaka City AL general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya were
present on the occasion. l

Four prosecutors from International
Crimes Tribunal (ICT), as well as the
chief coordinator of the ICT’s investigation agency, have bought nomination
papers from ruling Awami League, in
a bid to take part in the upcoming national elections.
They confirmed that they bought
their nomination papers yesterday.
All of them went to buy the nomination papers from Awami League’s central office yesterday, accompanied by
their supporters and some local leaders. Earlier in the day, they also sought
blessings from their colleagues and
media personnel.
The four prosecutors are Sultan
Mahmud from Satiyatpur-2 (Noria-Shakhipur), Nurjahan Begum from
Chandpur, Mokhlesur Rahman Badal
from Kishorganj-2 (Pakundia-Kotiadi),
while Syed Saidul Haqueis seeking a
party ticket for Chunarughaat.
The prosecutors were reportedly engaged in intense lobbying for securing
Awami League nominations to contest

in the upcoming polls from their local
constituencies.
After buying his nomination papers after 3pm, Sultan Mahmud told
the Dhaka Tribune:“Let’s see, what
happens. I am hopefulin achieving my
goal. I am serving Awami League since
my youth. Now it is time to give something to the nation.”
Prosecutor Syed Saidul Haque said:
“The people from my constituency are
very much happy as I took the nomination paper today [Sunday].”
To woo voters and draw supportfrom the grassroots-level, all of them
have started communicating with their
constituents, holding meetings with
local leaders and planning for election
campaign. Some of them have also
openedgroups on social networking
site Facebook to campaign withthe
young generation.
Abdul Hannan Khan, chief coordinator of investigation agency,said: “I think
I have every potential to get nomination
and I am encouraged by my popularity in
my constituency. So, I am optimistic of
getting nomination from Netrakona-5.”

Mokhlesur Rahman Badal was seeking candidacy for the Kishoreganj-2
seatwhere Prof Dr Abdul Mannan,
member of Central Advisory Council
of Awami League, was the incumbent
lawmaker.
About his nomination possibilities,
Badal said Dr Mannan was a good candidate,but he was above 80 years old
and it would be tough for him to visit
all 20 unions for election campaign.
“So I am hopeful about nomination
and doing my job in my election area,”
he added.
Meanwhile ICT Prosecutors Mohammad Ali, AKM Saiful Islam and Abul
Kalam were alsoreported to be interested in buying nomination papers from
Awami League. However, AKM Saiful
Islam was out of country, while the others were reportedly not ready yet.
All of the ICT prosecutors were
hopeful of getting nominations from
Awami League, because they considered themselves to have carried out
their respective roles, as well as being
involved with the party’s politics for a
long time. l

officials and Suranjit Sengupta, chairman of the parliamentary standing
committee on law ministry, to lobby
against the amendment proposal.
In the face of criticism, the government caved in.
In September, the parliamentary
watchdog finalised recommendations
dropping the controversial section that
would force the ACC to seek government permission.
On Sunday, Awami League lawmaker Obaidul Muktadir proposed re-inserting the provision that would curtail
the ACC’s authority. The House then
accepted the proposal.
Another Awami League MP Nurul Islam Sujon and Jatiya Party MP Mujibul
Haque brought seven amendment proposals. The government accepted six of
them.
Sujon in his proposal, which was

accepted, said the investigation officer
must complete probe within 120 days
of receiving notice. The officer could
seek 60 more days, if necessary.
In case he failed to complete the
investigation by 180 days, the government would assign another officer,
forcing him to finish the investigation
in 90 days.
The proposal also says the commission can charge the investigation officer with inefficiency if deemed.
According to another proposal
that the government accepted, the
ACC can ask for report from any of the
government wings for the sake of investigation and seek expert opinion
on the issue. In case of rejection, the
ACC can initiate the investigation on
its own.
In that case, the government, with
the application of the commission,

would take actions against the errant
government departments.
The government also accepted Mujibul Haque’s proposal for extending
the tenure of the ACC chairman and the
commissioners by one year from the
existing four years.
Haque said the ACC did not produce
the witness in the corruption cases.
Referring to the cases against his party
chief HM Ershad, Haque said: “If a former president had had to move around
courts for 18 years, what could be the
condition of the commoners?”
Deputy Speaker Col (retd) Shawkat
Ali, who was chairing the House
session, said: “All are equal in the eyes
of law.”
Matia Chowdhury said the bill was
aimed at containing corruption, which
stood in the way of the country’s development. l

too, will have to suffer the same fate if
this trend continues,” he said at a discussion held at the National Press Club.
Many people were killed, scores of
others were injured and a large number
of vehicles were damaged during the
two previous 60-hour hartals by the
opposition.
The additional police forces were
deployed in front of the opposition
leader Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan house after arresting five senior leaders of the
BNP on Friday night.
But BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at
a press conference in the afternoon alleged that in the name of additional security, the BNP chief had been left into
insecurities.
However, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday told
reporters at the ministry: “BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is not under house
arrest. The government only strengthened security measures for ensuring
her safety.”
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Metropolitan
Police (DMP) authorities have withdrawn all the additional security forces
from in front of the residence of Khaleda and her political office in the capital’s Gulshan yesterday, on the third
day of the deployment.
“Withdrawal of additional security
forces started since the morning as per
the directives of the higher authorities,” said Khandaker Lutfiul Kabir,
deputy commissioner at Gulshan Division of the DMP. l

television channels, and we interpret
those using our political farsightedness,” said Amjad Hossain, Meherpur
district BNP president and lawmaker.
He also complained that there was no
direct instruction from any of the top
leaders so far about the movement.
Some leaders in the grassroots think
they might not be able to do anything
if the government holds national elections without BNP. Some of them believe the latest arrest is a move to break
the confidence of party leaders.
Against this backdrop, Khaleda has
appealed all leaders and activists not
to be morally down because of the arrests, party insiders said.
Despite frustrations, some leaders
were trying to boost the morale of party
activists and colleagues, they claimed.
Luxmipur district BNP leader ABM
Ashrafuddin Nizan, also a lawmaker from Luxmipur-4 constituency
thought that the central and Dhaka
leaders of the party could not wage

movement in the capital as law enforcers took a hard line.
“So party’s grassroots leaders have
to be more active than those in Dhaka,”
he felt.
“How long will the law enforcers
be able to protect Dhaka? The capital
has already become isolated from the
rest of the country due to opposition’s
movement,” the lawmaker claimed.
“The government’s plan to hold
national election under their own arrangement will not come true,” said
Thakurgaon BNP General Secretary
Taimur Rahman.
Shamsuzzoha Khan, president of
Naogaon BNP, said the ongoing movement would not bring any result for
them until they could show strong
demonstration in the capital. “Central
leaders should take to the street immediately.”
Khaleda Zia repeatedly asked the
party leaders to take to the street to
mount pressure on the government but

her call remained almost unheard by
party hierarchy.
However, a number of top BNP leaders expressed their resentment at the
“unplanned and immature” polls-time
interim government proposal and poor
handling of the prime minister’s invitation, which, they said, caused the
party’s failure to intensify the ongoing
movement.
Many also noticed low turnout of
party leaders and activists in Thursday’s rally at Suhrawardy Udyan. Only a
few hundred BNP leaders and activists
showed up there, while BNP chairperson chose to address the rally through
a video conference from her Gulshan
residence, few kilometers away from
the venue.
But the grassroots still keep their
hopes alive.
“At some point the Dhaka will be
the centre point of our movement and
we will realise our demand,” said Meherpur district BNP leader Amjad. l

Khaleda
 PAGE 1 COLUMN 6

Grassroots BNP wait for calls from Dhaka
 PAGE 1 COLUMN 2

get any special directive yet from the
central or senior leaders in Dhaka in
this crisis situation.
Friday night’s arrests and raids have
scared most front ranking leaders of
the central and city units into hiding to
avoid arrest. Calls to their cellphones
are hardly answered.
Law-enforcers in plainclothes encircled the Gulshan residence and office of
party Chairperson Khaleda Zia. Heavily
guarded headquarters of the party at
Nayapaltan is rarely visited by any leader of the party or its front bodies.
No BNP leaders tried to meet Khaleda at her home since the arrest of
Mintoo and Shimul immediately after
they came out of Khaleda’s house in
Gulshan Friday night.
Some sources, however, said that
Khaleda remained in touch with some
senior leaders over phone as she usually doesn’t go out of her residence
during opposition alliance’s hartal.

After the arrest of the senior leaders,
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia asked
party’s other top leaders to work for
waging movement evading arrest, according to top level sources.
But some BNP activists and leaders
outside Dhaka expressed their frustration over the inaction of leaders in the
capital from top to ward level. Many
of them said party policymakers might
not come to the street to wage movement and get arrested, but they should
not distance themselves from party
leaders who were waiting for their calls.
Even on the first day of the 84-hour
hartal, Dhaka city leaders and Thana
and ward level leaders did not show up
in the street.
“We are frustrated over the performance of senior leaders in Dhaka,”
Mesbahuddin Farhad, Barisal district
BNP president and also a lawmaker
from Barisal-4 constituency, said, “The
poor performance of Dhaka city BNP in
the street frustrated us greatly.”

The lax organisational performance
also irked the party chief. In Thursday’s
standing committee meeting, Khaleda
expressed her disappointment over the
poor performance of Dhaka city unit
BNP.
She then told the meeting: “You the
senior leaders do not take to the street.
You confine yourself to your house. Ok,
if you stay indoors; I will take to the
street and, if needed, will be arrested.
I will wage action alone with the activists.”
Khaleda particularly slammed senior leaders for not being present on
streets during shutdowns.
“We are doing tough hartals in Barisal,” said Farhad, Barisal district BNP
president. “But movement should be
intensified in the capital,” he said adding he was yet to get any direction from
central leaders.
“We are getting information about
the latest political situation and the
party stances through newspapers and

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

3

Monday, November 11, 2013

ELECTORAL CODE OF CONDUCT

Political parties give a
damn about it
n Mohammad Zakaria

The registered political parties had so
far given no opinions over the draft
electoral code of conduct uploaded on
the Election Commission website, EC
officials said yesterday.
More than one election commissioners at the commission meeting
yesterday expressed frustration as the
political parties had not come up with
ideas to improve its suggestions, meeting sources said.
Besides, election analysts think that
the commission should not have drafted the electoral code of conduct without
holding discussions with the major political parties.
On November 3, the EC uploaded the
draft electoral code of conduct for seven

days seeking suggestions and opinions
from the political parties, civil society
and general people.
Deputy Secretary of the section concerned of the EC Abdul Odud said only
an election observer organisation and
some citizens had given their opinions.
“We did not get any suggestions and
opinions from the political parties and
civil society members,” he said.
EC sources said most of the opinions
they received criticised the draft electoral code of conduct.
The opinions said the commission
should have held discussions with the
political parties prior to drafting the
electoral code of conduct.
The opinions also slated the EC for
preparing the code of conduct in a haste.
However, most of them think that

it will not be possible to ensure a level-playing field through this electoral
code of conduct if political parties cannot reach a consensus.
A number of EC officials yesterday
told the Dhaka Tribune that officials of
the commission had expressed concern
over the acceptability of the draft electoral code of conduct.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC)
Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad yesterday said
the commission got recommendations
and opinions through email, internet
and hard copy. “Now we will scrutinise
them.”
Former election commission M Sakhawat Hussain said political parties are the
main stakeholders of EC. “The EC should
have held dialogue with the political parties before preparing the draft. l

ACC once again made
toothless: Analysts

Dipu Moni to discuss
Land Boundary
Agreement with
Indian counterpart
n Syed Samiul Basher Anik
n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
The Anti-Corruption Commission has
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is scheduled
to meet her Indian counterpart Salman
Khurshid today at the sideline of Asia Europe Meeting to discuss bilateral issues
and political situation in Bangladesh.
The minister left Dhaka for New Delhi
yesterday to attend the two-day ASEM
ministerial that will begin today.
“Political issues along with Land
Boundary Agreement, Teesta agreement,
border killings will be discussed in the
meeting,” said an official of the Foreign
Ministry. India assured Bangladesh that
the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA)
between Bangladesh and India would be
placed in the upcoming winter session of
Rajyshaba and Dhaka would press for it
again to move forward the relationship
between the countries, he said.
Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid failed to place the constitution
amendment bill to pave the way for ratification of LBA during the last two Rajyashaba sessions. Bangladesh ratified
LBA in 1974 and signed in the same year.
Dhaka would push for concluding
Teesta agreement and stop border killings as these were very thorny issues in
Bangladesh, the official said.
Dipu Moni would leave New Delhi for
Colombo tomorrow to attend a meeting
of Commonwealth Heads of Government. l

claimed that it is “unaware” of a provision incorporated in a bill passed in
parliament although analysts believe
that the provision will make the commission “toothless.”

On February 28 last year, a
bill was placed in parliament
with a number of
amendments to the ACC Act
2004 which included the
controversial provision
Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman M Bodiuzzaman yesterday said
he did not have clear idea about the
provisions of the recently passed Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2013. He
refused to make any comment on any
particular section before getting a copy
of the bill.
Parliament yesterday passed the bill
keeping a provision for the ACC to take
approval from the government before
filing corruption cases against judges,
magistrates and government officials.
Anti-graft campaigners have said
the provision will curtail the graft buster’s independence instead of strengthening it.

Yusuf was the founder
of Razakar: Witness
n Udisa Islam
A prosecution witness yesterday told
the International Crimes Tribunal
that AKM Yusuf was the chairman of
Jamaat-e-Islami and the founder of
Razakar in 1971.
Seventy-six-year old freedom fighter Yusuf Ali Sikder, the fourth prosecution witness against Jamaat leader
AKM Yusuf in the war crimes cases,
also described the death of his co-fighters during the Liberation War and
claimed that all of them were killed
upon orders by the war crime suspect.
Later, a junior defence lawyer began cross examining the witness as the
senior counsel was not present at the
tribunal because of hartal. The cross
examination remained unfinished and
the tribunal set tomorrow for further
proceedings.
Witness Yusuf said after March 7, he
had started planning to take part in the
Liberation War by forming a resistance
committee. On March 26, he, along
with some other freedom fighters,
joined with nine sub sector commander Ziauddin Ahmed at Sundarban area.
“Then we formed a group called Alpha
and I was made its commander.”
After March 26, some Razakars
came to Soronkhola and set up two

camps. One of the camps was at a police station and the other was at the
house of Nasir Mia, a businessman of
Rayendabazar.
“On July 6, we attacked Rayenda bazaar. But somehow they got information about before the attack. At three in
the morning, we heard the sound of a
launch and came to know that Maolana
Yusuf was coming with some razakars.
“Suddenly they opened fire on us.
We also fired back. When we ran out of
bullets, we decided to retreat. But the
razakars captured some of our co-fighters including Captain Anwer, Azmat Ali
Munsi and Ismail. The razakar’s took
them to Mowlana Yusuf and tortured
them. After torturing them throughout the night, Yusuf ordered for their
shooting,” the prosecution witness
continued.
On May 8, the prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal 2 charged
AKM Yusuf with the murder of eight
people and the mass killing of 700 others, looting 300 houses and 400 shops,
and forcing 200 Hindus to convert to
Islam.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yusuf
was indicted on 13 war crimes charges,
including killing, genocide and arson,
religious conversion and deportation
of people. l

Former adviser to the caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan said the government had curtailed the independence of the commission by approving
such a provision.
“The government must initiate a
provision for ‘reconsideration’ if differences of opinion arise between the
ACC and the government. However,
by incorporating the controversial provision, the government has kept the
power in its hands and thus, it [ACC]
will not properly work in combating
corruption,” he said.
On February 28 last year, a bill was
placed in parliament with a number
of amendments to the ACC Act 2004
which included the controversial provision.
Later last year, Law Minister Shafique
Ahmed told media that the graft busting agency would not need the government’s consent to file corruption cases
against government officials.
Former ACC chairman Ghulam Rahman said he would not give any opinion until he received a copy of the bill.
He, however, said if the passed bill
contained any such provision, it would
work to compromise with corruption
and surely curb the ACC’s independence.
“If the law contains such a provision, my struggle for making the ACC
a real tiger from a toothless one will be
rendered useless,” Ghulam said. l

Stacks of transparent ballot boxes piled on the Election Commission premises have been brought ahead of the national elections. The
photo was taken yesterday
RAJIB DHAR

Shibir men kill BCL leader in Chittagong
n Tushar Hayat, Chittagong

A Bangladesh Chhatra League leader
was hacked to death allegedly
by members of Jamaat-e-Islami’s
student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir in
Lohagara upazila under the district last

night.
The deceased, Mahabubur Rahman
Bappi, was president of the Bara Awlia
Degree College unit of the ruling
party’s student wing.
Mohammed Shahajahan, officer-incharge of the Lohagara police station,

told Dhaka Tribune that a group of
Shibir men launched an attack on
some BCL men who were gossiping at
Amirabad area at about 11:45pm.
The OC also said the attackers
slaughtered Bappi and left the spot
injuring several other BCL activists. l

JS session to extend AL LEADER KILLING AT MOTIJHEEL
till November 18
Jubo League men sued
n Kamran Reza Chowdhury
The First Information Report (FIR)
n Mohammad Jamil Khan
said the victim had conflicts with the
The last session of the Jatiya Sangsad is
set to be stretched for a few more days as
the government yesterday tabled three
more bills in parliament.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury adjourned the session until November 18.
Textile and Jute Minister Abdul Latif
Siddiqui tabled the Bangladesh Handloom Board Bill 2013, which went to the
parliamentary standing committee on
the ministry for a seven-day scrutiny.
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed tabled
the Legal Aid Assistance (amendment)
Bill 2013 and the House set five days for
the parliamentary standing committee
on the law ministry for further scrutiny
and report.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid tabled the Jessore Science and Technology University (amendment) Bill 2013
that went to the parliamentary standing
committee on the education ministry for
three days. Parliament secretariat sources said two more bills were waiting for
passage. l

The wife of slain Awami League leader
Khairul Alam Mollah filed a case with
Motijheel police station yesterday, 54
hours after the leader was stabbed to
death by some miscreants in the city’s
Motijheel area.
Shefali Alam named seven people
as accused in the murder case, including Jubo League and Awami League
leaders.
According to the case details, the accused of the case were Jubo League’s
75 number ward unit Vice-President Tayeb Ali, General Secretary of
Sayedabad Roads Transport Workers
Union and Awami League leader Ali
Akbar Babul and their supporters Jafor Sentu, Sumon and Naimur Rahman
Durjay.
The case also accused five to six unidentified people, informed DM Farman
Ali, officer-in-charge of Motijheel police
station. Police have already began investigation in this regard, he added.

accused and often received extortion
demands and death threats.
On the day of the killing, a meeting
was held to solve the disputes between
the two sides, but the talks reportedly
failed to settle the matter and Khairul
was killed soon after leaving the meeting.
On Thursday, some miscreants
stabbed to death Khairul Alam Mollah,
organising secretary of Awami League’s
Jatrabari unit and general secretary of
Sayedabad Bus Terminal Owners Association.
Asked about the delay in filing the
case, the victim’s wife Shefali Alam told
the Dhaka Tribune that the case was filed
after completing Khairul’s burial process
and consulting with the relatives.
Sub-Inspector Jahirul Islam Munna,
investigation officer of the case, said
some clues have been found and expressed hopes that the mystery will be
solved soon. l

WAR CRIMES TRIAL

Eighteen charges pressed against Kaiser
n Udisa Islam
The prosecution has submitted formal
charges against Syed Mohammad Kaiser, former state minister of Ershad’s
regime, for his alleged involvement in
the crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
A total of 18 charges have been
brought against Kaiser including killing, extermination, enslavement, deportation, abduction, confinement,
torture, looting, arson and assisting in
rape.
Kaiser was arrested on May 16, a
day after the tribunal had ordered his
arrest. He was later granted conditional bail considering his age and health,
and allowed to live in his son’s house.
On Sunday, prosecutor Zead al
Malum with three other prosecutors
including Tureen Afroz and Tapas K

CHARGES AGAINST KAISER
Charge 1

Murder, attack, loot, arson

Islampur

Charge 2, 7, 12
and 13

Loot and arson

Madhabpur Bazar, Nasirnagar,
Habiganj sadar and Katiara

Charge 3 and 4

Murder, Loot and arson

Krisnanagar and Madhabpur Bazar

Charge 5 and 6

Confinement torture murder

Sayestaganj

Charge 8

Assisting to rape

Chunarughaat

Charge 9

Murder

Madhabpur

Charge 10, 15, 16,
17, 18

Abduction confinement, murder

Borobohula, Chunaryghat,
Madhabpur

Baul submitted the formal charges at
the International Crimes Tribunal’s
registrar’s office. He has been accused
of crimes committed mostly in Brahmanbaria and Habiganj.
In charge number 18, the prosecution alleged that Kaiser was involved
in killing of 118 people from 21 villages

of Brahmanbaria and Habiganj on November 15 in 1971. Names of all dead
and wounded people have been mentioned in the formal charge.
According to the probe report, Kaiser was a leader of Convention Muslim
League and local Peace Committee and
also a razakar commander during the

One more day lost in hartal as
Nizami’s lawyers seek time again
n Udisa Islam
The defence counsel for Jamaat-e-Islami chief
Motiur Rahman Nizami has not appeared
before tribunal as they did in any hartal day
before.
Whenever a case date coincides with a
hartal called by BNP or its allies, defence
counsels choose to send their juniors with an
adjournment petition claiming that they cannot
be present due to personal difficulties and lack of
security.
Frequent submissions of such petitions
prompted the international crimes tribunal 1 to
pass an order last week, saying that if defence
wants, tribunal will give them security.
But defence was not ready to accept the offer
and they told on the third day of the last 60-hour
Hartal that they are not feeling safe with the
police too.
Sunday was fixed for submitting closing

arguments by the defence for the second day.
But junior defence counsels appeared with
a similar adjournment petition while their
seniors were absent. They appealed for a week’s
adjournment.
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali vehemently
opposed the petition and said the defence plea
was nothing but an attempt to waste time.
After hearing both the sides, International
Crimes Tribunal 1 adjourned the hearing for
one day and set today for defence’s closing
argument.
Prosecutor Abul Kalam Azad submitted: “If
they (defence) fail to be present on Monday then
please close the defence argument and we can
start the next proceedings of trial.”
The tribunal did not make any comment on
that and left the court room.
Nizami was indicted on May 28 last year on
16 counts of crimes against humanity including
murder, rape, arson and inciting violence. l

war. He also formed “Kaiser Bahini”
to collaborate with the Pakistani occupation army and committed various
crimes against humanity.
Kaiser fled to London after
Bangladesh gained independence in
1971 and returned in 1975. In 1979, he
took part in the national elections as
an independent candidate and was
elected as a lawmaker. He then joined
the BNP.
During the regime of military dictator HM Ershad, Kaiser joined the Jatiya
Party and became the state minister
for agriculture. Investigation agency
submitted their report to prosecution
on September 22, which gave the basis
for the formal charge.
The agency named 81 witnesses.
Investigator Monwara Begum probed
the war crimes from March 28, 2012 to
September 21 this year. l

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, November 11, 2013

Tougher law on
brick production
passed
n Abu Bakar Siddique
The parliament yesterday passed a new
bill on brick manufacturing introducing tougher regulations, including a
provision for trial of offences under the
penal code. Previously, offences were
tried under the environment court.
The new law – Brick Making and
Brick field Establishment (Control) Act
2013 – was tabled as a bill in parliament
on October 27.
It prohibits establishment of brickfields in residential, protected, commercial and agricultural areas, and also
in forests, sanctuaries, wetlands and
Ecological Critical Areas (ECAs).
Any establishment in the prohibited
areas would be treated as a “criminal
offense,” the law says, with varying degrees of punishment for the offenders
to be determined by the nature of the
area(s) involved.
For setting up a brickfield in residential, protected or commercial locations,
the maximum punishment would be
five years in prison or Tk5m in fines,
or both. For setting up a brickfield in
forests – private or public – sanctuaries and wetlands, the punishment

would be one year’s imprisonment or
Tk100,000 in fines.
Currently, there are more than 6356
brickfields in the country.
The existing law – Brick Burning
(control) Act 1989 – had been amended
two times, in 1992 and 2001, before it
was finally replaced by the new law.
Like its predecessor, the new law also
criminalises use of wood as fuel and
imposed control on the use of coal.
The 1989 law was scrapped with the
passing of the new law.
According to the new law, anyone
found guilty of using low-quality coal
containing low sulphur would have
to pay a maximum fine of Tk50,000.
However, the standard of coal wasn’t
clearly defined in the law.
The brick-making industry is one
of the fastest-growing in Bangladesh
earning a yearly revenue of around
Tk8.66bn. It is also one of the largest
sources of greenhouse gas emission,
estimated to produce 6m tonnes of CO2
annually.
Some estimates say about 33% of
the fuel used in brick kilns comes from
wood fuel – which is strictly prohibited
in the law. l

A rickshaw-puller wears a helmet as a safety measure to save himself from the hartal violence in the city’s Nayapaltan area yesterday

Two killed, 200 injured on first day
of 84-hour 18-party hartal

CPB, BSD demand
action against Tuku

n Tribune Report

n Tribune Report

At least two people were killed and
around 200 others were injured on
the first day of the BNP-led 18-party
alliance’s 84-hour hartal, as pickets
clashed with police and exploded several hundred crude bombs in the capital and different districts.
The pickets torched vehicles and
several offices of the ruling party, vandalised 100 more vehicles, and uprooted railway tracks in different districts,
while law enforcers managed to arrest
around 150 pickets.
An employee of University of Science and Technology Chittagong
(USTC) was killed in Chittagong in the
morning and an expatriate was killed in
Feni in the evening.
Several people sustained severe
burn injuries in separate arson attacks
in Dhaka and elsewhere while many
others were injured by bomb attacks
and police firing.
In Chittagong, USTC employee Nirmal Sen, 30, was killed when the autorickshaw he was on was forced to overturn by chasing pickets at Katakhali in
Hathazari upazila.
Jahirul Islam, in-charge of Chittagong Medical College Hospital police
outpost, said Nirmal was killed as the
driver lost control of the vehicle after it
was chased by the pickets.
Meanwhile, around 50 people, including law enforcers and women,
were injured in clashes between police
and pickets, who exploded around 50

WEATHER

Dry weather likely
n UNB
Weather may remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country
until 6pm today.
Night and day temperature might
remain nearly unchanged over the
country, Met Office said.
The sun sets in the capital at 5:14pm
today and rises at 6:11am tomorrow.
Country’s highest temperature 32.5
degree Celsius was recorded at Sitakunda and lowest 13.5 degrees at Dinajpur yesterday.
Highest and lowest temperatures recorded in some major cities yesterday
were:
City

High

Low

Dhaka
Chittagong
Rajshahi
Rangpur
Khulna
Barisal
Sylhet
Cox’s Bazar

31.5
29.0
29.8
29.2
31.5
31.0
31.8
32.0

19.5
19.3
17.5
17.5
18.5
18.2
18.5
20.5

PRAYER TIMES
Fajar
Sunrise
Zohr
Asr
Magrib
Esha

4:53am
6:10am
11:43am
2:52pm
5:15pm
6:32pm

Source: IslamicFinder.org

crude bombs, torched two vehicles and
vandalized 15 others.
Police fired several hundred rounds
of rubber bullets, tear shells and sound
grenades to disperse the clashing pickets and made 21 arrests.
Arefin Jewel, additional deputy
commissioner (west) of Chittagong
Metropolitan Police, said at least 13
policemen, including Abdul Majid,
officer-in-charge of Akbar Shah police
station, were among the injured.
Amir Khasru Mahamud Chowdhury, president of the city unit of BNP,
claimed 36 of their leaders and activists
were injured in police action.
In Feni, an expatriate was killed and
three others were injured, after pickets
chased the ambulance they were on
into a roadside tree in Daganbhuiyan in
the evening.
Ilias Hossain, 35, died on the spot at
Mukterbari on the Feni-Maizdee road. The
injured, including the ambulance driver,
have been admitted to Feni Hospital.
Nizam Uddin, OC of Daganbhuiya
police station, confirmed the death and
the injuries, but said he was not sure
whether the vehicle was chased.
In the capital, at least 30 people
were injured, including 10 with burn
injuries, as several buses were set on
fire and around 100 crude bombs were
exploded at different places including
Mohakhali, Wireless Gate, Modhubagh,
Demra, Malibagh Crossing, Mouchak,
Lalbagh, Mirpur, and Tejkunipara.
At least 10 people received burn injuries when a human hauler was torched

in front of Jagannath University last
night. Anisur Rahman Babu, a cameraman of private satellite TV Channel 24,
was injured when pickets hurled crude
bombs near Bangla College at Mirpur-1
around 8 am.
In Jamalpur, clashes left more than
20 people injured, including 12 with bullet wounds, in Sharishabari. The clash
erupted when local Awami League men
brought out an anti-hartal procession
and resisted pro-hartal activists from
picketing at Shishua Baghmara.
In Meherpur, pickets exploded crude
bombs, vandalized trucks and obstructed transport movement by putting
wood logs on different roads in the area.
In Barisal, hartal activists set fire to
an office of the city unit Chhatra League
president Jasimuddin at Sagardi. Three
vehicles were also torched, while police arrested 26 opposition men.
In Laxmipur, clashes between pickets and police left around 12 people injured at Chandraganj.
In Comillla, at least 10 people were
injured when Jamaat-Shibir activists
and police locked into a clash in Chauddagram.
In Natore, pickets uprooted rail
tracks at Sreerampur in Lalpur upazila,
causing rail communications between
Dhaka and the northern districts to remain suspended for over four hours.
At least seen vehicles were damaged
in Khulna, seven more in Satkhira,
while several other vehicles were vandalised in Gazipur, Rajshahi, Manikganj, Joypurhat, and Chandpur. l

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB)
and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal
(BSD) yesterday urged the government
to take action against State Minister for
Home Shamsul Huq Tuku for patronising the people who attacked Hindu
families, and called for launching a judicial investigation into the incident at
Pabna’s Santhia.
The parties made the calls in a press
briefing at the city’s Mukti Bhaban,
held to publish an investigation report
on the recent attack on Hindus at Bonogram bazar in Pabna’s Santhia upazila
on November 2.
The investigation report said: “Rajib, son of Babul Saha is from a wealthy
family. Several times local extortionists
collected extortion from Babul Saha.
Before the attack, the extortionists demanded huge amounts of money from
him which he could not pay. For these
reasons, extortionists spread rumors
on ‘Facebook status’ and claimed Rajib
Saha had maligned Prophet Mohammad (SM). They led a group of people
and distributed photocopies of what
they called ‘a Facebook page’.
“On November 2, Chhatra League
leaders Kawsar Habib Sweets and
Chhatra Shibir leaders Jakir Hossain
picked Rajib and confined him at Chhatra Dal leaders Sohal Hassan’s shop.
Later, they attacked Rajib’s father’s
shop, house and temple which went on
for more than three hours,” the report
said.

It also claimed that the state minister visited the area following the incident, but was accompanied by some
of the perpetrators of the attack during
his visit, causing further panic among
the locals.
The investigation report also alleged
the law-enforcement agencies of not
being active enough to prevent the incident.
BSD Central Committee leader Razekuzzaman Ratan led the investigation
team, with members including Ismail
Hossain, Naba Kumar Karmakar, Shahidullah Shabuj and Barek Talukdar
Karmakar. The investigation team visited the area on November 7.
Meanwhile, Doctors for Health &
Environment (DHEN) also protested
the attack on Santhia’s Hindu
community and called for putting
an end to fundamentalism to help
democracy flourish.
From a human chain in front of the
National Press Club yesterday, leaders
of the organisation urged the government to take effective actions in order
to stop repetition of the same reprehensible incident.
Saying that attempts to attack minority communities should be prevented socially, they also demanded
punishment of the accused and urged
all to be aware of the misuse of religion
for erupting mayhem.
Among others, Prof Dr M Abu Sayeed, Dr Quazi Rakibul Islam, Dr Md Azizul Huq, and Advocate Subrata Chowdhury joined the human chain. l

NASHIRUL ISLAM

BDR CARNAGE CASE

Verdict text sent
to High Court
n Tribune Report
The text of the BDR carnage case verdict
sentencing 151 former BDR personnel to
death was taken to the High Court from
the trial court yesterday under police and
Rab escort.
An officer of the HC’s death reference
section received the document around
4:15pm, confirmed Abdul Karim, assistant bench officer of Dhaka Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s
Court.
He said the court papers included
12 bundles of verdict and order, and 30
other files with over 80,000 pages of
dockets.
“The papers included 38,001 pages
of case diary, 2,632 pages of court order,
1,858 pages of verdict, 1,120 pages of
charges against the accused, 5,255 pages
of depositions and cross-examinations
of witnesses, 4,048 pages of examination of the accused under Section 342
and so on,” Karim said.
In an unprecedented verdict, a Dhaka
court on Tuesday handed down death
sentences to 151 ex-BDR personnel and
one civilian for killing 57 army officers
and 17 civilians during the bloody mutiny
in 2009. The court gave life sentences to
161, including former BNP MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League
leader Torab Ali, for their involvement in
inciting and conspiring. l

Senior BNP leaders go into hiding

Indictment hearing
against Adilur, Elan
The move is termed as strategy of anti-government movement
on November 17
Alamgir were available on the phone,
hartal yesterday.
n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
n Abu Hayat Mahmud
While visiting the residences of with the exceptions of Lt Gen (retd)
The Cyber Crime Tribunal in Dhaka yesterday fixed November 17 as next date for
indictment hearing against human rights
organisation Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur
Rahman Khan and its Director AKM Nasiruddin Elan.
The court also fixed the same date for
Elan’s bail hearing.
Cyber Crime Tribunal Judge KM Shamsul Alam passed the order after hearing
the plea.
Adilur Rahman appeared before the
tribunal yesterday at 10:30am, but the
jail authorities failed to produce Nasiruddin Elan before the court because of the
18-party enforced hartal.
Defence counsel Asaduzzaman also
filed two petitions – one for bail and another for providing documents to the defence pleader.
The court decided to pass order on the
petition after scrutinising the documents.
Earlier on November 6, AKM Nasiruddin Elan surrendered to the tribunal that
issued order that he be sent to jail after
rejecting bail prayer.
On October 11, Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan was freed on bail from
the high court division for six months.
On September 4, DB Inspector Ashraful Islam pressed charges against Adilur
and Elan after probing the Odhikar’s claim
that 61 people died in May 6 crackdown. l

Fearing arrest and police raids, senior
leaders of main opposition BNP have
gone into hiding, with many of them
also switching off their mobile phones.
“If we all get arrested, then how will
we carry on our movement? So, hiding
is a strategy of the movement,” said Fazlul Haque Milon, organizing secretary
(Dhaka division) of the BNP, who has
been in hiding since Friday night.
On Friday, just hours after the opposition alliance announced a 72-hour
nationwide hartal, BNP Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, MK
Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah were arrested, while BNP Chairperson Khaleda
Zia’s Adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo and
her Special Assistant Shamsur Rahman
Shimul Biswas were also picked up
separately.
Later, law enforcers also carried out
raids at the homes of a number of senior leaders of the 18-party alliance,
prompting other leaders of the alliance
to go into hiding.
A huge number of law enforcers had
also been deployed in front of the BNP
headquarters since Friday night.
Only BNP Joint Secretary General
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Executive Committee member Billal Hossain were
seen at the party’s Nayapaltan central
office on the first day of the 84-hour

some BNP senior leaders, it was found
that most leaders were not in their
houses. However, BNP leaders who
were also retired army officials were
available both at their homes and over
the phone.

The arrest of the opposition
leaders has not interrupted
the anti-government
movement, but it will rather
strengthen the movement
When this reporter visited the Shahjahanpur residence of BNP Standing
Committee member Mirza Abbas, his
Personal Secretary Md Anisur Rahman said: “Sir had not been at home
for some days.” Anisur also said a large
number of police had been patrolling
the area since Saturday noon.
Visits to the Gulshan and Gopibag
houses of BNP Vice-President Sadeque
Hossain Khoka revealed that the leader
was not available at either houses.
BNP Member Secretary Abdus
Salam and the party’s Human Rights
Affairs Secretary Nasir Uddin Ahmed
Ashim were also not available at their
respective homes.
Meanwhile, none of the senior BNP
leaders including the party’s acting
secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam

Mahbubur Rahman and Brig Gen (retd)
ASM Hannan Shah.
The senior leaders of the 18-party
were not staying in their homes because of harassment from the government and law enforcers, Lt Gen (retd)
Mahbubur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Police arrested opposition party’s
senior leaders without any allegation,
which is not positive for country’s democracy and the people did not accept
it easily,” he said.
“The arrest of the opposition leaders has not interrupted the anti-government movement, but it will rather
strengthen the movement,” Mahbubur
added.
Meanwhile, activist and supporters
of BNP have been expressing dissatisfaction at the decision made by the party’s frontline leaders to go into hiding.
Arifuzzaman, an activist of Khilgaon
thana BNP told the Dhaka Tribune: “I
am very upset because the party’s senior leaders are hiding. If they [senior
leaders] go into hiding repeatedly, how
will the anti-government movement
continue?” he raised doubts.
Seeking anonymity, several activists
and ward leaders of the main opposition also expressed similar dissatisfaction to the Dhaka Tribune. l

36th death
anniversary of
Enamul Hoque
today
n Tribune Report
Today is the 36th death anniversary of
Enamul Hoque, noted social worker,
teacher and engineer.
He donated his eyes before three
years of his death. One of his corneas
was used for Shahadat Chowdury,
editor of Bengali Weekly (Shaptahik)
-2000 and another was used for a man
named Ramzan Ali after his death, says
a press release.
Enamul Hoque was born at Uluberia
Rajkhola in Hawra district of West Bengal on October 1, 1921.
In 1946, he obtained engineering
degree and started teaching at the then
Ahsanullah Engineering College (now
Buet).
He was one of the founding members of Diabetic Association. He was
the founding general secretary of
Dhanmondi Club (now Sheikh Jamal
Dhanmondi Club). l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Education

Learning a new language
is possible for all

Getting to know
Albania!
n Samira Mostafa

n Andrew Weiler
A lot of people
would love to
learn English. It
is important to
make their experience as positive
and as productive
GOLDEN
as possible, otherRULE
wise they will be
turned off.
Learning a language is as achievable
as learning to bake a cake. The trouble
is that most people are given the wrong
ingredients and strategies; hence their
experience is one of struggle. The success rate for learning a new language is
low worldwide.
This state of affairs persists despite
the fact that all of us learned our first language! Some learned multiple languages
simultaneously!
Most learning methods do not reflect
the way we learned our first language.
We get grammar exercises, vocabulary
drills, rote memorisation of phrases etc.
None of these bear any relation to practicality. Before long, the learner starts
thinking: “I am no good at learning English.”
When people attempt again, the results are not appreciably different, as
they tend to replicate what they did
before, already believing it is going to
be hard, which doesn’t help the learning process.

The trouble is that most
learning methods do not
reflect the way we learned
our first language
The diverse ways of learning languages
we have do not mean that they are all
suited to people who are setting out
with self-doubt or with poor skills and
strategies.
Teachers need to ensure that they
look for ways of teaching that will produce success. As a teacher, I have consistently used as a benchmark that if a
student is not learning with what I am
doing, the fault lies with me. I know I
can change myself and what I do, but
changing what other people do will
only happen in a positive way if they
want to follow me.
Following are a few suggestions to
teachers, parents and all people learning a new language:

5

Monday, November 11, 2013

GEO
SKETCHING

The Republic of Albania is a country in Southeastern Europe
with a population of 2,831,741 people. 70% of the country is
mountainous and rugged and often inaccessible from the outside. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to
the northeast, Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south
and southeast. The modern-day territory of Albania was, at
various points in history, part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia, and Moesia Superior.

History

The history of Albania emerges from the prehistoric stage from the 4th century
BC. The territory remained under Roman control until the Slavic migrations of
the 7th century, and was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century.
Later on it was taken over by the Serbian Empire during the 14th century.
Albania’s independence was recognised by the Conference of London on
July 29, 1913, but the drawing of the borders of Albania ignored the demographic realities of the time. The short-lived monarchy (1914–1925) was succeeded by an even shorter-lived first Albanian Republic (1925–1928), to be replaced by another monarchy (1928–1939).
Albania was occupied by Fascist Italy and then by Nazi Germany during
World War II. After the liberation of Albania from Nazi occupation, the country
became a Communist state, the People’s Republic of Albania (renamed “the
People’s Socialist Republic of Albania” in 1976), which was led by Enver Hoxha
and the Party of Labour of Albania.

Interesting Facts about Albania

Mother Teresa (Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) is generally celebrated as the
only Albanian to win a Nobel Prize, though born in Skopje in 1910 (now in
Macedonia but then in the Ottoman Empire).
 The Tirana International airport was named after Mother Teresa in 2001.
 Albania, Armenia and Vatican City are the only European countries without a McDonald’s branch.
 Albanians nod their head up and down to mean ‘no’, and shake it from
side to side for ‘yes’ l


Ditch practices and materials that you have been using
Grammar drills and study seldom produce fluency. Instead try to use simple sentences: speak them and change one element at a time until you
can say that sentence spontaneously by looking at different persons, talking about different objects, in different time frames, etc. Personalise and
emotionalise what you say, talking about your life, wishes, belongings,
friends etc. That way you will be more connected to the language you are
using. Don’t try to run before you can walk – stay with the vocabulary that
comfortably fits into what you can say.
Translating words has limited value. Instead work towards being able
to stay in English, using whatever means you can find to do that.
Rote memorisation is a flawed way of approaching language learning. Instead be active with how you are learning.

Work at improving listening and noticing capacities
One way you can do this is by watching movies in the target language –
with no subtitles in your mother tongue. Just watch it and focus on what
you can understand rather than on what you can’t understand.
 look for gestures that might be familiar and tie them together with
facial movements and actions
 listen for words that get repeated, like fillers (in English some use
“um,” but that is not universal, or for greetings or words that express
disappointment.
 you can extend this kind of work to sounds and melodies as well.
You may already be good at this or maybe not; whatever level you are at
you can learn a lot. Only do it as long as you are energised by the activity.
Try altering what you do, the time, the genre and what you look for.

Take on practices leading to confidence building
Learn to be on the lookout for practices that bore you or you feel
get you nowhere. Maybe try changing the exercise somehow so
it doesn’t bore you. If it still does, just dump it.
After working on something for a while, the result should be
a growth in confidence. If that isn’t happening, you need to find
another exercise.
There is a simple practice that beginners can try that gets
you speaking, which is at the heart of learning languages. Learn
a simple phrase like “I am picking up my pen.” Rather than learn
that sitting down, walk around your house and say the same
sentence with different objects, making sure that you pick it up
at the right time (not before, not after, but just as you are picking it up).
That way you are speaking, practicing, not mindlessly drilling, learning new vocabulary as you go along. You just need
to work at the speed of the utterance and the melody and the
stress – all components that will have you sounding like a native.
Change the sentence into the “past” form, involve your partner
in the game or even an imaginary friend.
The possibilities are endless, a key being to keep changing
what you say, rather than mindlessly repeating the same sentence like a parrot.
The critical factor is to believe that you can learn a language
successfully. You have already proved that you can. So it is only
a matter of finding what is stopping you and to keep looking for
ways that work. l
The writer has authored the recently published “Language
Learning Unlocked” available at all good bookshops.

Q: I have a sibling who
has autism. I am the elder and am currently
trying to understand
his situation and how to
deal with him; I feel it is
ASK
MS POP
my responsibility for the
rest of my life. How can I
take care of him and maintain my life?
I’m considering going towards a career
in medicine. What would you suggest?
MsPop: You seem like a noble sibling with
a warm heart. You already sound responsible and probably will do a splendid job in
taking care of your sibling. However, if you
do choose to study in that line, then there
is a chance you might want to explore
scopes outside the country. Which will initially take you away from your sibling. Do
you really want to be away from him? I am
sure you have already done research on
the internet to know about autism in detail. Figure out what type or level of autism
your sibling has. Consult with doctors.

Q: My parents insist that I teach my
younger brother and sister in the
evenings, including supervising their
homeworks. I have an age gap of 10
years with them. I have a different life
style and friends, not to mention my
own things to do in my own time. I keep
telling my parents to hire a separate
tutor for them. But they insist that it is
my responsibility to take care of them.
What should I do? I am not a good tutor
either.
MsPop: I understand when you are saying
that you are not a good tutor. However,
your parents may have a hard time to understand that fact. I believe you can set a
certain time schedule with your siblings
when you can look after them, and also
hire someone to do the same. Take care of
the financial part of hiring the tutor, so that
your responsibility is maintained and your
parents are happy. Oversee their work or
tutor’s progress once a week. This way you
can do what you like with your time.

Students, teachers and parents are encouraged to send in their queries or
share their problems at education@dhakatribune.com

ULAB awards research grants
n Education Desk

Banglalink Grandmaster
3 engages top 20 teams
for day long training
n Education Desk
The Banglalink Grandmaster season
3 engaged over 8,000 registered students around the country in a single
competition to create mobile internet
based applications that can change
people’s lives. From the original 500
teams, only 20 remain and they will
compete for the top place at the finale
on November 23.
The participants have undergone
rigorous workshops and grooming
to prepare for the big day where they
will present their ideas to a panel of
celebrity judges. On October 23, they
underwent a day-long training session
conducted by Professor Dr Kaykobad,
CSE, BUET, Professor Dr Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, School of Business,
North South University, Dr Sarwar Uddin Ahmed, Dean, School of Business,
Independent University Bangladesh,
Professor Mamun Rashid, Vice Chairman, Financial Excellence Ltd and
Professor Dr Md Musa, United International University and also a number of
high officials from Banglalink.
The winning team will be chosen at
the finale. Banglalink has involved the

end users themselves in the competition: the judging will be done in two
phases, one by all the Banglalink fans
on facebook through voting on the
Banglalink facebook page, and eventually by the jury panel, who will take the
public’s decision into account while
making final judgment.
The Grandmaster Champion will
receive Tk200,000, while second and
third place will receive Tk150,000 and
Tk100,000 respectively. The three winning teams will also visit China to attend a 12-day-long youth camp, where
they will attend further workshops and
receive hands-on training from experts
at Huawei Technologies Ltd. In addition, the students will visit the manufacturing plants of Huawei during the
trip. Feasible projects will be taken into
account for execution as applications.
Banglalink’s Head of PR and Communication, Marketing Sharfuddin
Ahmed Chowdhury said at the training
session: “We believe Grandmaster can
motivate students to think of unique
ideas and hopefully this kind of thinking will create a mobile application
that will help society and change millions of lives.” l

University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
(ULAB) awarded eight research grants
to its faculty members at an award
ceremony on November 7. Each year,
the ULAB Academic Research Committee awards grants to emphasise and
encourage university-level research.
Professor M Omar Rahman, Vice Chancellor of Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) was the Chief Guest of
the ceremony.
After a rigorous application process, ULAB chose eight deserving
projects to fund: “Constructing Local Knowledge and Practices in the
Sundarbans,” “Women’s Citizenship
in Digital Bangladesh,” “HAMiGram:
Holistic Arsenic Mitigation Program (A
Holistic Mitigation Approach to Arsenic Contamination Via Sensing, Communication and Collaboration),” “Poor
Utilisation of Road Networks & Vari-

able Vehicular Speed: An Empirical and
Modeling Study of the Factors to Traffic Congestion,” “Measurement and
Analysis of Traffic Noise,” “Underuse
of the Domestic Violence (Prevention
and Protection) Act, 2010,” “Review
of Bangladesh Monetary Policy-2009
to 2013” and “The impact of the index
options introduction on volatility and
liquidity; evidence from Asia (India,
Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan,

Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore).”
The mission of the University of
Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) is not
only to seek to impart relevant and upto-date knowledge to our students, but
also be a creator of knowledge. Critical
to this desire is the promotion of a research culture, whereby faculty members see research as important to their
teaching and career prospects.
ULAB Vice Chancellor Professor Im-

ran Rahman gave a welcome speech
and Senior Advisor of Strategic Planning to the ULAB Board of Trustees
Professor Brian Shoesmith gave the
vote of thanks in the programme. ULAB
Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor H M Jahirul Haque, Registrar Lt Col Md Foyzul
Islam (Retd) and members of the ULAB
Board of Trustees were also present on
the occasion, along with ULAB faculties and students. l

Scholastica celebrates
United Nations Day

Faculty conversation at BRAC University

n Education Desk

n Education Desk

The Scholastica students, teachers and
management personnel celebrated
United Nations Day this year on October 24. The students of the middle section made colorful flags of UN member
countries and participated in a quiz
competition. The students of the senior campus celebrated the day with a
flag parade and displayed a dance performance.
UN Day is celebrated annually to
bring all nations of the world together
for peace and development UN Day
message by the UN Secretary General
Ban Ki–Moon was read out by a student. Stalls were based on various UN
agencies working in Bangladesh and
some UN projects were displayed at the
STM Hall. The day ended with a debate
competition on the topic “This house
believes that the United Nations has
failed to keep its promises.” l

The Teaching and Learning Centre
(TLC) is an innovation of BRAC University dedicated to promoting excellence
in teaching at all levels and to enhance
students’ learning inside and outside
the classroom. Its objective is to develop an interactive teaching-learning

process. The goal is to hone a capacity
of teachers reflecting, critically analysing, synthesising, and evaluating situations.
To ensure an effective teaching and
learning environment at BRAC University, TLC is regularly organising training sessions for faculty members. The
latest among these was “A Faculty Con-

versation on Different Teaching Methods.” Twenty one faculty members
from different departments attended
this conversation.
The conversation started with the
teachers sharing the challenges they
face in classroom teaching. In groups,
the teachers discussed the different
teaching methods and techniques they
use to work with these challenges,
and then they shared their ideas with
the entire group. Because of the positive participation, TLC plans to continue with another session on different
teaching-learning issues.
The facilitator of this conversation
was Ms Beth Trudell, who is an English
Language and Faculty Development
Consultant. She has a master’s degree
in English for TESOL from California State University, East Bay and has
worked with both BRAC University and
BRAC from 2006-2008 as an English
Language Fellow. l

6

DHAKA TRIBUNE

News

Monday, November 11, 2013

Clockwise: Two Rab personnel are in action during a fierce clash between the law enforcers and pro-hartal activists at the AK Khan intersection in Chittagong; Passengers keep waiting for vessels in the capital’s Sadarghat Launch Terminal; Miscreants vandalise and torch the
office of Barisal Mahanagar Chhatra League President Jasim Uddin on the first day of the 18-party alliance enforced 84-hour countrywide hartal yesterday
DHAKA TRIBUNE

Blasts, arson mark 1st day hartal in metros
Hartal supporters hurl a number of handmade bombs in different areas and vandalise vehicles
A huge number of police, RAB and
26, driver of the torched auto-rickshaw President Shawkat Hossain Hiron and and banks were poor comparing norn Tribune Report
BGB personnel have been deployed
sustained burn injuries while trying to Secretary Afzal Hossain marched on mal days.
The first day of the 84-hour non-stop
hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance passed off amid stray incidents and tight security measures in
divisional cities.
Our Barisal correspondent reports: A
peaceful hartal was observed in Barisal
yesterday with stray incidents.
The personal office of city unit
Chhatra League President Jasimuddin
in Sagordi area was blazed by pro-hartal activists early morning.
Jasimuddin claimed that properties
worth Tk300,000 had been destroyed in
the fire and he would file a case against
the perpetrators in this connection.
At least two tempos and a batteryrun auto rickshaw were also torched in
the city in the morning. Maruf Hossain,

extinguish the flame and has been admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital.
Police arrested at least three picketers till the filing of this report from different areas.
Police sources said the number of
arrested opposition activists reached
to 23 within last 24 hours.
BCC councillor and Jubo Dal leader
Syed Akbar Hossain was arrested by
Rab in the afternoon. Rab sources said
Syed Akbar was a listed terrorist and
would be handed over to police after
interrogation.
Chhatra League activists organised
an anti-hartal motorcycle showdown
on city roads.
Anti-hartal picketers led by city AL

the city roads and held rallies in front
of their office at Sohel Square.
Number of rickshaws and motorised
three-wheelers were less than normal
yesterday. Water routes were also relaxed as there were fewer passengers.
Administrative and judicial offices and
educational institutions functioned
with less attendances.
In Chiitagong, the first day’s hartal
was observed peaceful as there was no
major incident reported from any part
of the city.
Hartal supporters hurled a number
of handmade bombs in different areas,
damaging a CNG-run three wheelers.
Rickshaws and some CNG-run autorickshaws were seen plying the streets.
Attendances in public, private offices

VC panel polls pending at JU
n JU Correspondent

Although four days have passed, Prof
Anwar Hossain, vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University, is yet to take
initiative for holding senate elections
for selecting the VC panel, following
President Abdul Hamid’s directives.
President Abdul Hamid, also chancellor of the university, asked the
agitating teachers on Wednesday to
withdraw their anti-VC movement unconditionally for the continuation of
academic activities of the university.
The Chancellor also directed VC Prof
Anwar Hossain to take immediate steps
to hold senate election and select VC
panel through the senate in line with
the university act.
Teachers had withdrawn all movements on Friday and returned to classrooms from Saturday but the VC was
yet to take steps following the chancellor’s instructions, alleged agitating
teachers.
Prof Anwar Hossain said he would
meet President Abdul Hamid to seek
explanation of the directives as he
found complexity in his directives re-

Stalker mass
beaten in Kaliganj
n Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah
A stalker was mass beaten by local
people in Raghunathpur village under
Kaliganj upazila under the district yesterday morning for teasing a schoolgirl.
The mischief maker was Abdul
Kader of village Enayetpur under the
upazila.
Locals said Kader had been disturbing the schoolgirl on her way to school.
Like other days, Kader harrassed the
girl while she was going to school in the
morning.
As the girl raised her voice, neighbouring people came in aid and caught
him red handed and gave him a good
beating.
Later, the stalker was rushed to upazila health complex at Kaliganj.
No case was filed till Sunday afternoon, Kaliganj police said. l

garding the senate poll.
After an emergency syndicate meeting, VC Prof Anwar Hossain told the
Dhaka Tribune: “I will obey each and
every command of the president for
sure but I need to talk to him as confusion has risen over the senate election.”
He said he anticipated that the
Chancellor might had asked him to reform the senate before selecting the VC
panel, as different representative bodies of the senate had expired.
However, the agitating teachers
claimed that the VC was not instructed
to reform the senate, rather called for
arranging VC panel election through
the existing senate as soon as possible.
Prof Amir Hossain, dean of social
science faculty, said: “Mentioning JU
act section 11 (1), the directives clearly
stated to select the VC panel immediately with the current senate. Section
19 would have been mentioned if it was
about reformation of the senate.”
“Showing respect to the Chancellor’s instruction, the teachers have
withdrawn all movements immediately but unfortunately, Prof Anwar
Hossain is yet to take proper initiatives

misinterpreting the directives,” alleged
Prof Amir.
The President also instructed the
VC to withdraw the writ petition filed
against the agitating teachers and to
continue all activities of syndicate and
other committees, academic council
and upcoming admission test of the
university, sources said.
Although the activities of syndicate
and other committees have resumed,
the authorities were yet to withdraw
the writ petition against the teachers of
the university, said sources.
However, an emergency syndicate
meeting was held at the council room
of the registrar office yesterday, which
was the first syndicate meeting in last
seven months.
Earlier a syndicate meeting scheduled for October 9, was cancelled as
the VC arranged that meeting allegedly
without informing all of the syndicate
members.
Expressing regret over the incident,
Prof Anwar Hossain said: “I was supposed to inform all syndicate members
but I could not do so for the circumstances.” l

Interns of Faridpur
Medical College
Hospital go on strike
n Tribune Desk
Interns at Faridpur Medical College
Hospital went on an indefinite work
abstention yesterday, protesting the
alleged assault on one of their fellows.
Sources at the hospital said a local influential along with his men had
physically assaulted Dr Fariduddin, an
internee, over a trivial matter on Friday.
In protest against the incident, the
interns on Saturday gave an ultimatum
to the law enforcers to arrest the assaulter by 24 hours, threatening to go
on a work abstention.
As police could not arrest the assaulter within the deadline, the interns
began their work abstention.

They also brought out a protest procession and held a rally on the college
campus in the morning.

The interns on Saturday
gave an ultimatum to the
law enforcers to arrest the
assaulter by 24 hours
Dr Prof ABM Shamsul Islam, supervisor of the hospital, said they had informed police about the matter, and
hoped that the problem would be
solved soon.
Quamruzzaman, additional superintendent of police (ASP) (Sadar circle),
said they had been trying to arrest the
culprit as soon as possible. l

However, the long distance and
inter-district buses stayed off the road.
In Rangpur, the hartal passed off
amid stray incidents and tight security
measures, reports BSS.
Leaders and activists of BNP and its
front organisations brought out several
protest processions in the city.
Besides, the leaders and activists
of Jamaat-Shibir brought out processions in different and put up barricade
on road, set fire to tiers, attacked and
torched several auto rickshaws and
motorcycles.
On the other hand, Rangpur district
and city units of AL and its front organisations brought out processions in the
city and arranged rally protesting the
opposition’s hartal.

in Shapla Chattar, Grand Hotel Mour,
Jahaz Company Mour, Paira Chattar,
Dhap Pakar Matha, Parker Mour, Modern Mour, Central Bus Terminal and
other places and check posts have been
set up in the city for maintaining law
and order.
The common life remained partially
affected during the first day’s hartal
period though rickshaws, auto-bikes,
bicycles and motorcycles plied in the
streets. Long route buses, trucks and
heavy vehicles have been staying off
the roads and highways.
Activities in the government offices,
business establishments and financial
and educational institutions activities were almost normal and while the
common people carried out their daily

Most Gazipur factories
back in operation
n Our Correspondent, Gazipur
All garment factories except two in
Gazipur resumed their operation yesterday after a weeklong shutdown,
prompted by renewed unrest over the
workers’ minimum wages.
No violence was reported in the two
factories – Palmal Group and Apex Limited – whose workers haven’t yet joined
work and continued demonstration on
the streets in support of their demand.
Jakir Hossain, an inspector of
Gazipur industrial police, said over five
thousand workers of Palmal Group of
Baroipara under Kaliakoir upazila had
demonstrated outside the factory in
the morning. Around the same time,
over 17 thousand workers of Apex Limited at the Palli Bidyut area also came
out on the streets to demonstrate.
About 10am, workers of both factories
tried to vandalise their units but were
held back by police who arrived in time
to pacify them and bring the situation
under control. Both the factories were

declared closed for the rest of the day.
Anwar Hossain, a worker of Standard
Group at the Konabari industrial zone,
said they had been demonstrating for
the past one week with the demand to
increase their minimum wage and to
compel the factory owners to comply
with the government decision on wages.
Initially they had planned to carry
on their strike on Sunday too, he added, but restrained themselves after seeing workers of neighbouring factories
join their respective workplaces.
Ashraful Islam, another worker of
the factory, said they had joined work
after hearing of the authorities’ consent to the newly fixed wage structure.
“Plus, the time for salary is knocking
on the door, so we thought it wise to
come back for the moment.”
Md Mominul Islam, administrative and human resources manager of
Quader Compact Spinning Limited,
confirmed the report that most of the
factories in Konabari, including their
own, had resumed production. l

Kuet teachers slate VC
for taking charges of
Civil Engineering Dept
n Tribune Desk
Teachers of the Civil Engineering Department of Khulna University of Science and Technology (Kuet) yesterday
declared their vice-chancellor ‘persona
non-grata’ for taking over as the head
of the department from his own.
Announcing the decision, some 22
teachers of the department said they
would not comply with any directives
of VC Prof Dr M Alamgir.
Sources at the university said authorities rusticated nine students
on charges of spreading propaganda
against the teachers over central viva
voce of the ninth batch students of the

Civil Engineering Department.
The authorities also warned 10 other
students asking them to refrain from
such types of activity in future.
The oral test was held on April 4
this year. Later, the High Court on May
4 stayed the punishment of five rusticated students for an indefinite period,
prompting the civil engineering teachers to refrain from all activities.
The teachers have been on the
movement, saying the university authorities did not take proper steps to
withdraw the writ petition.
On Thursday, VC Prof Alamgir took
over as the head of the department to
end the stalemate. l

works including farm activities.
Officer-in-Charge of Kotwali police
station Syed Shahabuddin Khalifa said
no major untoward incident occurred
so far and the law enforcement agencies have been on high alert to maintain law and order.
In Rajshahi, pickets vandalised a
covered van in Katakhali Deopara area
of the city in the morning. Police arrested a total of 13 BNP and Jamaat supporters from Motihar and Boalia area of
the city during the hartal hours, reports
UNB.
In Sylhet, associate bodies of main
opposition BNP held a rally at the city’s
Zinda Bazar at about 9 am. Meanwhile,
Chhatra Dal activists beat a Shibir activist in front of City Centre around
8:30am for riding a rickshaw in the hartal hours. l

PCJSS observes
30th death
anniversary of MN
Larma
n Our Correspondent, Rangamati
Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati
Samiti (PCJSS) yesterday observed the
30th death anniversary of Manabendra
Narayan Larma, popularly known as
MN Larma, a leader and pioneer of the
indigenous people and the founder of
the PCJSS.
On the occasion, the parbatya samiti
paid tribute to MN Larma and the many
others who had dedicated their lives
with him to establish the rights of Jumma People in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
They also organised a rally chaired by
PCJSS Vice-President Ushatan Talukder.
A memorial meeting was also organised by MN Larma Memorial Foundation at the district’s Shilpakala Academy Auditorium around 3:30pm.
The meeting was chaired by Bijoy
Keton Chakma, convenor of the foundation, and Jotirindra Bodipriya Larma, president of PCJSS was present as
chief guest.

On the occasion, the parbatya
samiti paid tribute to MN
Larma and the many others
who had dedicated their lives
with him to establish the
rights of Jumma People in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts
Ripesh Chakma, vice-president of PCP
central unit, Kalpana Chakma, member
of PCJSS central unit and Sishir Chakma, teacher and cultural organiser,
spoke in the meeting.
In 1983, MN Larma was killed along
with his eight comrades in a factional
attack.
He was the person who first instructed the movement by unifying the
indigenous people of Chittagong Hill
Tracts to realise their due identity and
rights.
MN Larma was also a member of
Gana Parishad when the constitution of
Bangladesh was passed unanimously
in the House on November 4, 1972 but
he never signed the constitution. l

n Our Correspondent, Jessore
A man was stabbed to death in Pagladah
village under Kotwali police station of
the district Saturday night.
The deceased was Asaduzzaman
Chunnu, 30, an accused in several cases, including murder, mugging and extortion.
Police and locals said Asaduzzaman
Chunnu came under gun and bomb attack while he was coming home around
7:30pm Saturday.
The assailants hurled crude bomb
at him and fired gunshot that left him
injured first.
Later, the attackers stabbed him indiscriminately and killed him on the
spot.
After he was taken to Jessore Medical College Hospital, the attending doctor declared him dead.
Emdadul Haque Sheikh, officer-in-charge, Kotwali police station,
said Asaduzzaman was an accused in
several cases including murder, mugging and extortion.
The police official also said a previous enmity might lead to the killing.
A case was filed with Jessore Kotwasli Model Thana. l

NEWS IN BRIEF
Bus driver held with
phensidyl in Benapole

Rab members in a drive arrested a
bus driver along with 1171 bottles of
phensidyl from Kagozpukur under
Benapole in Jessore on Saturday.
The arrestee was Illias Sheikh, son of
Rafiqul Islam Sheikh of Bhaberber village. Rab-6 camp sources said acting
on a tip-off, the team had conducted
a drive in the area at night and halted
a Jessore-bound bus. Searching the
bus they recovered 1171 bottles of
phensidyl from a luggage and arrested
the bus driver. – UNB

Bomb hurdled at BNP
leader’s house
in Jessore

A group of unidentified people
hurdled a bomb at the house of a local
BNP leader at Benapole in Jessore
on Saturday. Emdadul Haque Sheikh,
officer-in-charge of Kotwali police
station, said unknown people threw
a bomb at the residence of Syed Saberul Haque Sabu, general secretary
of district BNP, around 10pm, but no
casualty was reported. – UNB

Youth strangulated to
death in Khulna
A youth was strangulated to death at
Rupsa upazila in Khulna on Saturday.
The deceased was Kishore Shikdar, 25,
son of Rabindra Shikdar of Kachua village in Bagerhat, was an employee of
a fish enclosure at Doba village owned
by one Maherndranath Majumder. Abdur Rahim, sub-inspector of Rupsa police station, said being informed they
recovered the body of Shikdar hanging
from the roof around 11am. Police said
rivals might have killed the youth and
hanged the body. The body was sent
to Khulna Medical College Hospital for
post mortem examination.– UNB

26 bombs, gunpowder
recovered in Rajshahi
Members of Rapid Action Battalion
recovered 26 handmade bombs and
4.5kg gunpowder at Kasba under Poba
upazila in Rajshahi on Saturday. Tippedoff, a team of Rab conducted a drive in
the area at about 9:15pm and recovered
the bombs and gunpowder from a bag
in an abandon condition, said Shafiqul
Islam, a commanding officer of Rab-5.
No one was arrested in this connection.
The bombs and gunpowder might have
been kept there to carry out sabotage
in the area during countrywide hartal
enforced by the BNP-led 18-party
alliance, said Shafiqul Islam. – UNB

7

Adampur village of Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha has been brought under 100% Bandhu Chula (Friend Stove)
in a bid to reduce fuel consumption and
ensure pollution-free environment, reports BSS.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) M Jahurul Islam Rohel formally declared
Adampur to be 100% Bandhu Chula users’ village at a programme on Saturday
by unveiling a plaque in the afternoon
as the chief guest.
Earlier, a discussion meeting was
also held at the auditorium of Katabari
union parishad (UP) complex of the upazila at 4pm on the occasion.
Local office of the programme arranged the function under Bandhu
Chula Bazaar Unnayan Uddyog in
cooperation with the Department of
Environment, Bangladesh Climate
Change Trust (BCCT) and GIZ (Germany International Cooperation).

Employees of railway fixing rail track as hartal supporters uprooted the track Ishwardi, disrupting rail communication between Dhaka and northern district for six hoursFOCUS BANGLA

With the slogan “We want to live with
our democracy, our independent” the
people from Hindu community formed
a human chain, protesting attack on
Hindu people and their establishments
at Shafinagar village of Bawra union at
Patgram upazila in Lalmonirhat.
They also demanded arrest of all the
culprits who were involved in the attack on Hindu people and their establishments at the village and assurance
of their exemplary punishment immediately.
The Hindu women, children possessing with different placards took
part in the human chain.
Local elite from Muslim communi-

ty’s people and freedom fighters also
took part in the human chain and expressed solidarity with their demand.
Speakers at the human chain said 16
shops, including medicine and grocery,
were vandalised and looted by JamaatShibir and BNP men on 27 October, the
first day of 60 hours hartal, in Shafinagar area of Patgram upazila.
The opposition men also torched
some of the shops, but the Hindu people did not dare to protest it except
only watching, they said.
Sunil Chandra Sen, 46, said they did
not know what their fault is, but they
were the victim of hartal.
“I think we are Hindu and it is our
fault,” he said, adding opposition men
always think Hindu people cast their

votes to Nouka (boat) that is not true.”
Paritosh Chandra Sen, 43, said the
medicine store was his only property, but the shop had been vandalised
and all the medicines worth about
Tk150,000 have been looted on the day.
“Now I am helpless and I have no
capital to re-run my business,” he said.
Protiva Sen, 52, said: “We the Hindu people are not enemy of any political party. Our family members do not
involve in any political activities, but
why we become victims?”
Schoolboy Krishna Chandra Sen, 12,
said: “We want permanent solution of
the repression, we want to live freely
with our proper rights.”
Abdur Razzak, 65, said, the Muslim and Hindu community people had

been living at the village peacefully for
years, but this bond of Muslim-Hindu
was facing trouble only for Jamaat-Shibir and BNP’s attack.
“Police should arrest the people involved in the attack as soon as possible,” he said.
Police, however, said, a case was
lodged accusing 111 persons for attacking Hindu people and vandalising and
torching their establishments.
Police already arrested three of the
culprits, police added.
Drives to arrest responsible for the
attack is going on, said Sohrab Hossain,
officer-in-charge of Patgram police station, adding that police could not arrest
the culprits as most of them had gone
into hiding soon after the attack. l

The use of Bandhu Chula
helped save fuel and reduce
carbon and air pollution
DC M Jahurul Islam Rohel addressed
the function as the chief guest and
Director (Planning) of DoE and Project
Director Quazi Sarwar Imtiaz Hashmi,
Deputy Director of BCCT Abi Abdullah and Project Manager Dr Engineer
Khalequzzaman were present on the
occasion.
With UNO M Ashrafuzzaman in the
chair, the meeting was also addressed,
among others, by Rangpur divisional
manager of BCBUU
Bul Majum Sarker Bulbul, district
manager Mohana Akter, entrepreneur
Ashraful Islam Nannu, Bandhu Chula user Emili Hemdrom and journalist
Sarker M Shahiduzzaman.
In the addresses, the speakers
said the use of Bandhu Chula helped
save fuel and reduce carbon and air
pollution.
A lager number of people from all
walks of life including social workers,
entrepreneurs, housewives and journalists attended the function. l

Flood-tolerant varieties of paddy
propagated in Gaibandha

Village cops demand class
four employee’s facilities

n Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

n Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat

Agro experts urged farmers to cultivate
flood-tolerant paddy in flood prone areas to benefit economically as well as
wade the way towards achieving food
security in the country on Saturday.

To save the seedlings from
floods, agro officials should
motivate the farmers to
cultivate flood tolerant paddy
in low lands that frequently go
under floodwater
The farmers would not incur loss anymore and gain benefit if they cultivated
flood tolerant varieties like BRRIDHAN
51, BRRIDHAN 52 and BINA 11, they observed.
These seedlings are tolerant to wa-

ter. They can survive under water for
up to 15 days, noted the experts at a
crop cutting function on flood tolerant
variety BRRI DHAN 52, organised by
Gobindaganj upazila agriculture office
at Chalk Singhadanga village under
Gaibandha district.
To save the seedlings from floods,
agro officials should motivate the farmers to cultivate flood tolerant paddy in
low lands that frequently go under
floodwater, they noted.
Deputy Director of Department of
Agriculture Extension (DAE) Mir Abdur
Razzak addressed the function as the
chief guest while Vice-President of Gaibandha Press Club Sarker M Shahiduzzaman attended as the special guest.
Razzak said as many as 2,605 hectares of land were brought under flood
tolerant paddy farming during the

current Aman season through the initiative of DAE and non-government organisation RDRS Bangladesh.
Besides, over 100 demonstration
plots have been set up in the district
this season to inspire the farmers to
cultivate the varieties in the upcoming
seasons to get desired yield, he added.
He emphasised on farming flood
tolerant varieties in low lands to get desired production against the high value
crops and to attain food security.
He sought cooperation from journalists to disseminate the information to
farmers through publishing. That would
help them earn profit overcoming the
risk of inundation and down pour.
After cutting paddy, the farmers expressed satisfaction over production. 5.04
metric tons of paddies were produced
from one hectare of land, they said. l

One held with firearms
in Naogaon
Narcotics Control Department
officials in a drive arrested a man and
recovered three foreign made pistols,
12 rounds of bullet and six magazines
from Hapania Bazar area under Sadar
upazila of the district early yesterday.
The arrested was Hossain Ali, 40, of
Saluka village of the upazila. Acting on
a tip-off, officials of the department
along with the police intercepted a
bus in the area and arrested Hossain
with the arms and magazines after
searching the bus, NCD inspector of
Naogaon circle, Saidur Rahman said.
A case was filed with Naogaon Sadar
Model police station in this connection. – UNB
Pickets blocked Bogra bypass road by felling logs yesterday, the first day of 84-hour hartal

FOCUS BANGLA

Village cops yesterday demanded that
the government provide them fourth
class employee’s facilities, including
introducing rationing system, to make
their livelihood smooth.
The cops also submitted a memorandum to the prime minister trough
deputy commissioner at noon.
The Deputy Commissioner in Lalmonirhat Habibur Rahman received
the memorandum from the village
cops at his office.
They also formed a human chain
in front the DC office on the same
issue.
There are 458 village cops at 45
unions of five upazilas in Lalmnonirhat, said the village cops, adding that
most of village cops were living under

poverty as they were mainly depended
on their little wage.
They said they worked hard
but their wage was not as per their
labourr.
“Village cops control law and order
situation at villages to give peace to the
villagers but there is no security in our
life,” said a cop.
The Adviser of the District Village
Cops Karmachari Union, also the General Secretary of Sangjukta Sramik
Federation, Lalmonirhat district unit
Maniruzzaman Manir told the Dhaka
Tribune said the present government
had declared village cop’s wage scale as
fourth scale on July 2 in 2011, but it yet
to be implemented.
The government should implement
the gazette on village cops’ as early as
possible, he demanded. l

8

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

India’s Congress goes into
election warm-up on the
backfoot

India PM to miss Commonwealth
summit in Sri Lanka
n AFP, New Delhi
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh will skip a Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka amid pressure to boycott the event over alleged war crimes
by Colombo, a top government source
said Sunday.
Singh wrote to Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday informing him of his decision not to attend
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM), the Indian
government source said.
Singh has been pressed by Indian

Gottipati, New Delhi,
n Sruthi
Reuters
Trailing in opinion polls and stunned
by the rise of opposition leader Narendra Modi, India’s ruling Congress party
is limping into a clutch of state elections, underlining the struggle it may
face to retain power when the nation
votes next year.
Surveys last week showed that Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) could win as many as four
of the five states going to the polls over
the coming month.
Opinion polls are notoriously unreliable in India, however. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s Congress party could still
cling to power in the capital, Delhi, and it
may wrest control of the eastern state of
Chhattisgarh from its rival.
The results of the state polls, due to
be declared on December 8, will largely
hinge on local leaders and issues, but analysts say a strong showing for the BJP will
boost the momentum for Modi in the runup to the national election due by April.
Congress is certainly very nervous because it has seen how the popular mood
continues to be against it,” said Amulya
Ganguli, a political commentator.
Although a deeply polarising figure,
Modi’s star has brightened dramatically, in large part because many voters - particularly the growing ranks of
young urban citizens - believe he could
set India on a new path after nine years
of corruption scandals and policy drift
under Congress.
Modi is widely seen as a business-friendly reformer who has attracted investment and bolstered economic growth in Gujarat, the western

Cut-outs of BJP PM Candidate Modi during his Vijay Shankhnad rally in UP
state he runs. The prospect that he may
become the country’s next prime minister, almost inconceivable a year ago,
has helped drive a surge in the Indian
stock market.
Goldman Sachs last week upgraded
its stance on Indian equities, noting in
a report titled “Modi-fying our view”
that optimism over the BJP leader’s
chances had trumped concerns about
economic problems such as high inflation and a fiscal gap. Furious over the
report, the Congress party accused the
investment bank of interfering in India’s politics.

Row over opinion polls

Congress has also been stung by polls
showing it may be hammered in the
national election, with one survey
showing it may win just 102 of the 543
parliamentary seats at stake, its worst
performance ever. The party has urged
a ban on opinion polls, arguing that they
can be “doctored by vested interests.”
It has also launched a series of at-

AP

tacks on Modi: in an interview with
Reuters, a senior cabinet minister compared his rise to the emergence of Nazi
Germany’s Third Reich.
Critics have long sought to brand
the Hindu nationalist leader a fascist
and blame him for anti-Muslim riots in
2002 that killed at least 1,000 people in
Gujarat.Surveys have shown that Rahul
Gandhi, the young scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that has dominated Indian politics since independence in 1947,
has so far failed to electrify voters.
For all its confidence, the BJP is expected to emerge from next year’s election far short of the parliamentary majority required to rule. Modi could find
it tough to win around allies to form a
working coalition, Ganguli said.
The local polls kick off on Monday
in Chhattisgarh, where the battle is
expected to be closely fought. Surveys
suggest the BJP will retain power in the
central state of Madhya Pradesh, and
wrest control of the desert state of Rajasthan from Congress. l

n AFP, London
Britain boycotting the Commonwealth
summit in Colombo over alleged war
crimes would damage the organisation
while achieving no positive change in
Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary William
Hague said Sunday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will be putting “serious questions” to Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapakse at the 53-member
organisation’s biennial summit.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh will skip the three-day summit,
which starts next Friday, while Canadian PM Stephen Harper has urged his
counterparts to follow him in boycotting the heads of government meeting.
“We do understand that (boycott),
but we’re not joining that,” Hague told
BBC television.
“If we were to stay away from this

Sri Lanka detains
Aussie, NZ lawmakers
over rights probe

n

Sri Lankan immigration authorities
on Sunday briefly detained an Australian and a New Zealand politician on
a fact-finding mission into alleged human rights abuses, officials said.
The move came days before the country hosts a Commonwealth summit.
Immigration officials held Australian
Senator Lee Rhiannon and New Zealand MP Jan Logie shortly before they
were to hold a press conference about
their mission, an opposition Sri Lankan
lawmaker said.
“They were accused of breaching visa
conditions, but they had ‘special projects
visas’ to be in Sri Lanka on a fact-finding
mission,” Tamil lawmaker M A Sumanthiran told AFP. An immigration official
confirmed the pair were detained briefly
at their hotel room for questioning, but
declined to give details. l

n AFP, Colombo

AFP, Bangkok

Red shirt supporters react to a speech from stage as they gather in Bangkok

WORLD WATCH
New Zealand police criticised
in Facebook sex case

New Zealand police are facing mounting
criticism for the way they’ve handled
an investigation into a group of teenage
boys who bragged on Facebook about
having sex with girls who were drunk and
underage. Calling themselves the Roast
Busters, the Auckland teens publicly
named some of the girls and continued
operating for two years before their
Facebook page was taken down last
week following a story on local television
station TV3. Police at first said they’d
not been able to prosecute the teens
because none of the girls involved had
made formal complaints. But they later
backtracked, saying a 13-year-old had
given evidence in a 2011 video interview,
and that they’d spoken to three other
girls over the past two years.

Bahrain jails 2 Shias for life for
bombing

A Bahraini court Sunday jailed for life
two Shias convicted of blowing up a car
outside a Sunni mosque in an attack that
caused no casualties, a judicial source
said. The criminal court sentenced three
others to 15 years in prison for their
involvement in the July 17 attack near
the royal court in the Sunni-majority
Rifaa district south of Manama, the
sources added. The explosion caused by
the bomb made from two gas cylinders
took place outside Sheikh Isa bin Salman
mosque.

Saudi MERS death toll
reaches 53

Saudi health authorities announced on
Sunday a new death caused by MERS,
bringing to 53 the number of fatalities

in the kingdom by the coronavirus.The
health ministry gave no details on the
latest death in the country most affected
by the disease that first appeared in
the Gulf state in September 2012. The
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has so far
cost 64 lives worldwide, according to a
November 4 update by the World Health
Organisation.

Armed men kill six in
central Nigeria

Gunmen attacked five farming villages
in volatile central Nigeria’s Benue State,
killing six people and burning many
houses, police said Sunday. State police
spokesman Daniel Ezeala told AFP “many
houses” were razed during the violence,
the latest on mainly ethnic Tiv people,
who are predominantly farmers. Local
media however said 36 people were killed
in the mayhem. Ezeala said police and
troops had been deployed to the trouble
spot.

Strong earthquake hits
eastern Japan, shakes Tokyo

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit eastern
Japan on Sunday, rocking buildings in
Tokyo, seismologists said. The quake
struck at 7:37am (2237 GMT Saturday), in
Ibaraki prefecture, north of the capital, at
a depth of 59 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said. The crippled Fukushima
nuclear power plant was shaken by the
quake but there were no abnormalities
reported, the plant’s operator said. The
quake lasted about 30 seconds and was
felt by many people in Tokyo. High-speed
Shinkansen trains were stopped briefly
for a track check, but quickly returned to
normal operation.

REUTERS

Tamil groups and several powerful
federal ministers to skip the 53-nation
meeting to protest the alleged massacre of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan
forces in 2009, at the end of the island’s
decades-long civil war.
Singh’s letter does not give the reasons for skipping the event, according
to the Press Trust of India.
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will instead lead the Indian delegation at the event in Colombo from November 15-17.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper has urged his counterparts to

follow him in boycotting the CHOGM
summit, in protest at alleged war
crimes and rights abuses on the island.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will attend the event,
but has pledged to push for an international investigation into the allegations
of war crimes that Colombo denies.
Cameron’s office also said in a tweet
late Saturday that he will put “serious
questions” to Rajapakse, after watching a “chilling documentary” about
the events of 2009 that shows footage
of alleged war crimes by government
forces. l

Skipping summit would ‘damage’
Commonwealth: UK’s Hague

Thai ‘Red Shirts’ rally ahead of key
amnesty debate
Thousands of Thai pro-government
“Red Shirts” massed in Bangkok on
Sunday in their first show of force since
a wave of opposition protests against a
controversial political amnesty bill.
Television footage showed a sea of
people decked out in red, many bussed
in from the country’s hardscrabble
northeast, at a noisy rally in a suburban park, with organisers saying they
expected to draw tens of thousands of
people by its peak late Sunday.
They gathered following several days
of protests by various opposition groups
against a deeply divisive amnesty bill
backed by Yingluck Shinawatra’s government, which has inflamed festering
political wounds. Thailand’s Senate was
due on Monday to debate the bill. l

Monday, November 11, 2013

meeting in Sri Lanka next week, it
would damage the Commonwealth
without changing things positively in
Sri Lanka,” he said.
Born out of the British empire, the
Commonwealth is made up mainly of
former British colonies and brings together around a quarter of the world’s
countries and a third of its population.
“We need to be there at the Commonwealth meetings,” Hague said.
“We’re discussing there the future of
international development, how we’re
helping developing countries...We can
only do that if we’re there.”
“We are going to say well, Sri Lanka
is in the spotlight so let’s make full use
of it being in the spotlight. Rather than
sit in London and talk about it, we will
be there in Sri Lanka.”
Hague said Cameron would become
the first foreign head of government
since Sri Lanka’s independence from

Britain in 1948 to go to the island’s
mostly Tamil north.
Cameron said earlier Sunday he
had watched “No Fire Zone,” commissioned by Britain’s Channel 4 television, which features footage of apparent war crimes shot by both Tamil
witnesses and government soldiers.
“No Fire Zone is one of the most chilling documentaries I’ve watched,” he
said. “It brings home the brutal end to
the civil war and the immense suffering
of thousands of innocent civilians.”
“Many of the images are truly shocking,” he said, repeating his call for an
independent investigation. “I will raise
my concerns when I see President Rajapakse next week in Colombo.
“And I will tell him that if Sri Lanka
doesn’t deliver an independent investigation, the world will need to ensure
an international investigation is carried
out instead.” l

Iran’s Rouhani says uranium
enrichment ‘red line’
n AP, Tehran, Iran
Iranian officials said Sunday the country made progress with world powers
during “serious” talks over Tehran’s
nuclear program, but insisted the nation cannot be pushed to give up uranium enrichment as negotiations move
into tougher ground over ways to ease
Western concerns that Iran could one
day develop atomic weapons.
The remarks on enrichment repeat
past declarations on the country’s
“right” to produce nuclear fuel, which
is a key element of the talks over its
scope. But President Hassan Rouhani
and his top envoys seek to assure hardline critics that Iran will not make
sweeping concessions in the negotiations, which ended without agreement
in Geneva early Sunday and are scheduled to resume next week.

All sides proclaimed progress, but
noted obstacles such as France’s worries over Iran’s enrichment levels and a
planned heavy water reactor that produces plutonium byproducts. The West
and its allies fear Iran’s uranium enrichment labs could one day produce weapons-grade material. But, in an important
shift, the US and others no longer appear
to demand a complete halt to enrichment and are concentrating on curbing
the highest-level production, currently
at 20%. Such material is needed for Iran’s
lone research reactor, which makes isotopes for medical treatments, but is only
just several steps away from warhead
level at more than 90 % enrichment.
Energy-producing reactors use uranium
enriched at levels of about 3.5%. Iran
insists it does not seek nuclear weapons
and says its reactors are only for electricity and medical applications. l

Israel in global push to thwart Iran nuclear deal
n AFP, Jerusalem
Israel was pulling out all the stops
Sunday to prevent what it considers
a looming bad deal with Iran over its
nuclear programme, before the talks
resume on November 20.
The diplomatic offensive was aimed
not only at the world powers engaged

Pakistani private
schools ban
Malala’s book
n AP, Islamabad
Officials say they have banned teenage
education activist Malala Yousafzai’s
book from private schools across Pakistan, calling her a tool of the West.
Malala attracted global attention last
year when the Taliban shot her in the
head northwest Pakistan for criticising
the group. She released a memoir in October, “I Am Malala,” that was co-written
with British journalist Christina Lamb.
Adeeb Javedani, president of the All
Pakistan Private Schools Management
Association, said Sunday his group
banned Malala’s book from the libraries of its 40,000 affiliated schools. He
said Malala was representing the West,
not Pakistan.
Malala has become an international hero for opposing the Taliban and
standing up for girls’ education. But
conspiracy theories have flourished in
Pakistan that her shooting was staged
to create a hero for the West. l

in negotiations with Tehran, after three
days of talks ended early Sunday without
a deal, but will also extend to the US Congress with which Israel retains close ties.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to the US, Russian,
French, German and British leaders
– five of the six world powers negotiating with Iran – and “told them that

according to the information reaching
Israel, the looming agreement is bad
and dangerous.”
According to Netanyahu, the mooted deal would remove sanctions on
Iran while still enabling the Islamic republic to enrich uranium and advance
works on a plutonium reactor.
“I asked them what was the rush? I

suggested they wait, and seriously consider things,” he said at the opening of
the weekly cabinet meeting.
“I hope they reach a good agreement,
and we will do all we can to convince
world powers to avoid a bad deal.”
Later on Sunday, Netanyahu was also
to address the general assembly of the
Jewish Federations of North America. l

PRAYERS AS CELEBRATIONS

An Iranian Shia Muslim woman sits in front a poster depicting religious prayers’ written in Arabic in downtown Tehran on November 9,
2013, during a ceremony marking Ashura, which commemorates the seventh century slaying of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet
Mohammed
AFP

DHAKA TRIBUNE

International

9

Monday, November 11, 2013

Philippine typhoon deaths cross 10,000

600,000 evacuated
as typhoon nears
Vietnam: officials

Authorities struggle to even understand
the sheer magnitude of the disaster
“People are becoming violent. They
n AFP, Tacloban
are looting business establishments,
The death toll from a super typhoon that
decimated entire towns in the Philippines
could soar well over 10,000, authorities
warned Sunday, making it the country’s
worst recorded natural disaster.
The horrifying estimates came as
rescue workers appeared overwhelmed
in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which
sent tsunami-like waves and merciless
winds rampaging across a huge chunk
of the archipelago on Friday.
Hundred of police and soldiers were
deployed to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital
of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and would
send military help.
“Tacloban is totally destroyed.
Some people are losing their minds
from hunger or from losing their families,” teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, said.

the malls... I am afraid that in one week,
people will be killing from hunger.”
Authorities were struggling to even
understand the sheer magnitude of the
disaster, let alone react to it, with the
regional police chief for Leyte saying
10,000 people were believed to have
died in that province alone.
“We had a meeting last night with the
governor and, based on the government’s
estimates, initially there are 10,000 casualties (dead),” Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban.
On the neighbouring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300
people were killed in the small town
of Basey and 2,000 were missing there
and elsewhere on Samar, which was
one of the first areas to be hit. Dozens
more people were confirmed killed in
other flattened towns and cities across
a 600km stretch of islands through the
central Philippines.l

n AFP, Hanoi

Residents cover their nose from the smell of dead bodies in Tacloban city

Pentagon announces help for Philippines victims
n AFP, Washington

A child stands on top a table in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines

AP

The Pentagon announced Saturday that
it was providing the Philippines with naval and aviation resources in the wake of
the country’s devastating typhoon.
A statement said that US Defence
Secretary Chuck Hagel would made helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and surface maritime search and rescue equipment available after a request from the
Philippines government.
“Secretary Hagel has directed US Pacific Command to support US government humanitarian relief operations in
the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon
Haiyan,” it said.
“The initial focus includes surface
maritime search and rescue, medium-heavy helicopter lift support, air-

borne maritime search and rescue,
fixed wing lift support and logistics enablers,” the statement added.
The United Nations has said it expects the provisional 1,200 death toll
from the super typhoon to rise and that
it is sending emergency supplies to the
stricken nation.
The Pentagon also said it was working with the US Agency for International Development and the American
ambassador in Manila, to continue to
monitor the effects of the typhoon and
was “ready to help our ally recover
from the storm.”
The United States held two large
military bases near Manila until 1992,
when it gave both up amid growing
anti-American sentiment and a rental
dispute. l

AFP

More than 600,000 people were evacuated as super typhoon Haiyan veered
towards Vietnam, authorities said Sunday, after the storm smashed through
the Philippines killing thousands and
causing widespread devastation.
Residents of the Vietnamese capital
Hanoi were braced for heavy rains and
flooding, while tens of thousands of
people in coastal areas were ordered to
take shelter ahead of Haiyan’s expected
landfall on Monday morning.
“We have evacuated more than
174,000 households, which is equivalent to more than 600,000 people,” an
official report by Vietnam’s flood and
storm control department said Sunday.
The storm is now expected to strike on
Monday morning after changing course,
prompting further mass evacuations of
some 52,000 people in northern provinces by the coast. The Red Cross said in a
statement Haiyan’s changed path meant
the “the disaster area could be enlarged
from nine provinces to as many as 15”
stretching the country’s resources. l

An Egyptian court has set December 9
for the Muslim Brotherhood chief and
senior officials of the movement to face
trial on new incitement charges, judicial sources said on Sunday.
Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and other leaders of
the Islamist grouping including Essam al-Erian and Mohammed al-Beltagui face charges of inciting violence
in the Cairo neighbourhood of Bahr
al-Aazam that led to deadly clashes
in July.
Badie and his two deputies Khairat
al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi in a separate trial already face other charges
related to the deaths of protesters who
stormed the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters on June 30.
In October, the original judges presiding over that case recused
themselves, citing “reasons of conscience.”
The court on Sunday also set December 10 for the trial of former Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef
who is accused of insulting the judiciary.

The trials are part of a massive
crackdown by authorities against the
Brotherhood after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed
Morsi in July.
Security forces launched a sweeping
crackdown on Morsi’s supporters in
August, violently dispersing two protest camps in the capital.
More than 1,000 people have been
killed since Morsi’s ouster – mainly his
supporters – and the authorities have
arrested some 2,000 Islamists, including most of the Brotherhood’s leadership.
Morsi himself is on trial over his alleged involvement in the deaths of protesters outside the presidential palace
in December 2012.
At his first hearing on November 4,
he rejected the court’s legitimacy and
demanded that the “military coup”
leaders be prosecuted instead.
The army ousted Morsi, Egypt’s
first democratically elected president, on July 3 after millions of people took to the streets to demand his
resignation, accusing him of betraying the revolution that brought him
to power.l

Maldives opposition
accuses court of
sabotaging elections

n AFP, Malé

n AFP, Malé
Presidential elections in the Maldives
were thrown into disarray on Sunday
after the Supreme Court suspended a
run-off vote, denying former president
Mohamed Nasheed the chance to return to power 21 months after he was
ousted.
Despite growing international concerns over the Indian Ocean atoll nation’s failure to elect a new president,
it is the third time in two months that
authorities have stepped in to prevent
polls taking place, leaving the nation in
political limbo.
Nasheed on Saturday garnered
46.93% of the popular vote but fell
short of the 50% needed to win outright in the country best known as a
honeymoon destination, with a run-off
scheduled for the following day.
The 46-year-old also came out on
top on September 7 in elections that
were subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court.
And police action prevented a second vote on October 19 following another court order that said procedures

Elections officials count votes after polling for presidential election closed in Male
had not been followed, adding to suspicions among foreign governments
that the authorities were determined
to prevent Nasheed returning to power
at any price.
“All relevant state authorities are
informed that today’s election cannot
take place,” the Supreme Court said in a
pre-dawn decision that came just hours

AP

before the re-run was due to begin.
The court order came after Chief
Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek announced he was going ahead
with the vote timetable agreed with all
the candidates before the first round.
The United States and the Commonwealth had both warned against delaying the run-off vote. l

Former Maldives president Mohamed
Nasheed on Sunday accused the country’s top court of deliberately delaying
presidential elections as part of a ploy
to block his return to power.
The Supreme Court early Sunday
suspended the runoff election hours
before it was due to start, halting a presidential vote for the third time in two
months and raising fears of a prolonged
political crisis in the young democracy.
Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader who was ousted
in February 2012 in what he calls a coup,
had appeared set to return to office after
winning almost 47% of the vote in the
first round of voting on Saturday.
Nasheed said the court was again
using a “flimsy excuse” to delay the
second round, this time until November 16.
“Next week, the Supreme Court
will again use some flimsy excuse to
delay the election and we will be back
to square one,” he told reporters in the
capital Male.
“We don’t think there is a conducive
environment for elections (in the Maldives).” l

Protesters hurl shoes
as Taiwan’s ruling
party meets

ABBA mulls possible
reunion

UN urges Qatar to improve migrant
labour conditions

Hundreds of angry protesters threw
shoes at riot police Sunday as Taiwan’s
ruling Kuomintang party held a congress to call for unity as public discontent grows with the govt.
The demonstrators – some of them
jobless after factory shutdowns and
others independence activists and
supporters of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party – vented their
anger at President Ma Ying-jeou, also
the Kuomintang chairman.
“Ma Ying-jeou, step down!” the
crowd chanted while hurling shoes at
riot police behind barricades.
A man was detained by police after
climbing over barbed wire outside a gymnasium in the central city of Taichung,
where the Kuomintang was meeting.
Pressure on Ma’s administration has
mounted after workers lost their jobs
following the mass shifting of assembly lines from the island to the Chinese
mainland to capitalise on cheap manpower and land prices there. l

n AFP, Frankfurt

n AFP, Doha

The legendary Swedish pop group ABBA
is mulling a possible reunion next year,
singer Agnetha Faltskog said in a German
newspaper interview Sunday.
Next year marks the 40th anniversary
of the band’s first hit “Waterloo,” which
won them the Eurovision song contest and
catapulted them to fame.
ABBA subsequently became one of the
world’s best-selling pop bands with a string
of number one hits such as “Mamma Mia,”
“Dancing Queen” and “Super Trouper.”
“Of course it’s something we’re thinking
about,” 63-year-old Faltskog told the
weekly Welt am Sonntag.
“There seem to be plans to do something to mark this anniversary in some
way. But I can’t say at this point what will
come of them,” she said.
Faltskog formed ABBA in 1972 with guitarist and songwriter – and later husband –
Bjorn Ulvaeus, as well as Benny Andersson

A top UN official on Sunday urged Qatar to improve conditions for foreign
labourers, as the Gulf emirate builds
a massive infrastructure for the 2022
football World Cup.
“Many migrants face human rights
violations in the workplace,” said the
UN special rapporteur on the human
rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau,
concluding an eight-day visit to Qatar,
which has come under fire over the alleged exploitation of workers.
“Some are not paid their wages, or
are paid less than agreed,” he said.
“I am also concerned about the level
of accidents in construction sites, and
hazardous working conditions resulting in injury or death,” he told a press
conference.
Qatar has the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world. Approximately 88 per cent of the total population are foreign workers, he noted.

n AFP, Taichung

and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
The group’s Eurovision success with
“Waterloo” came in Brighton, England, two
years later.
The band, whose last album “The
Visitors” appeared in 1982, has sold more
than 380 million records worldwide, making them one of the most successful pop
bands in history. l

Crepeau urged the energy-rich state
to introduce measures that would protect workers, including establishing a
minimum wage for all employees, including domestic staff.

‘Some are not paid their
wages, or are paid less than
agreed’
Gulf countries do not enforce a minimum wage for foreign workers, leaving
it up to employers.
The UN envoy advised an “effective
labour inspection system,” with more
inspectors “well trained on human
rights standards, and interpreters in
the most commonly used languages.”
He also called for the “right of association and to self-organisation for all
workers,” in addition to allowing workers to change jobs “without sponsor/
employer consent and (to) abolish the
exit fee requirement.”

The sponsor system, by which an
employee must be sponsored by an
individual or a firm, is applied in most
Gulf countries, leaving expats at the
mercy of sponsors who could refuse to
allow them to leave.
Crepeau recommended that Qatar
ratify a number of UN conventions on
the protection of migrant workers, civil and political rights, and the convention against torture.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper earlier this year charged that labourers in
Qatar were faced with “modern-day
slavery” and were paying with their
lives.
The country has come under the
spotlight of human rights organisations
as it embarks on a multi-billion-dollar
plan to host the 2022 World Cup.
Sepp Blatter, chief of world football’s governing body FIFA, said on
Saturday from Doha that the issue of
working conditions in Qatar was being
addressed. l

10

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Editorial

Letters to

www.dhakatribune.com

Joy for some, tears for
others

Words = money = lives
November 7

P

oliticians have remarked on the arrests of senior BNP
leaders this weekend from the perspective of their ability
to bring people into the streets.
BNP members have complained that the crackdown challenges the party’s ability to organise as leaders are going into
hiding, while AL figures have been crowing that the relative
lack of reaction to these arrests underlines the opposition’s weakness.
We deplore the myopic attitude to politics being shown
by leading politicians.
The two parties need to
It is ordinary people who
change their mindset
pay the price for our political
and remember they
leaders’ addiction to displays
are serving people in a
of power and street politics.
democratic society
No one in the country benefits
from their short-sighted reliance on confrontation.
When politicians talk in
the belief that such displays
of power impress voters, they are severely mistaken. Actions
which undermine the political process or which have violent
consequences are simply not acceptable.
The public has consistently demonstrated its belief in
democracy by voting in large numbers at national elections. It
has also consistently shown its willingness to vote overwhelmingly for the two main parties. Yet the two parties still carry on
as if their popularity depends on their ability to bring people
out on to the streets.
They need to change their mindset and remember they are
serving people in a democratic society. They must demonstrate that they are motivated by the national interest and
show they are fully accountable to the public. Their power
must be earned in fair debate and rewarded or rejected at
the ballot box, not in the streets or ill-conceived displays of
strength.

Reorienting ourselves
in the climate debate

t is well known that Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the adverse effects of climate
change. The trajectory of our development demands that
we rethink our role in the climate debate and position ourselves as one of the leaders in climate mitigation as well.
While we have one of the lowest per capita emission rates
in the world, this will change as the economy shifts towards
more industrialisation. Also
the country’s acute need for
more power is making less
climate-friendly but cheaper options such as gas- and
We urgently need
coal-fueled power plants seem
to fully integrate a
more attractive than carcarbon mitigation and
bon-friendlier options such as
reduction strategy
renewable energy.
into all facets of
We urgently need to fully
development
integrate a carbon mitigation
and reduction strategy into
all facets of development. By
doing so, it will allow us to tap
into innovative new regional initiatives – for example, the newly launched emissions
trading programme by China – as well as making better use of
existing initiatives such as the Carbon Development Mechanism. Greener growth policies can also generate new sources
of revenue and forge new beneficial relationships which can
boost economic growth.
Just as important, it will strengthen our position in international negotiations by demonstrating moral leadership.
As one of the fastest growing markets for solar energy, Bangladesh has already proved that it is capable of reconciling the
needs of development and environmental sustainability.
The government needs to increase efforts to integrate climate mitigation into the long-term sustainable development of
the country.

Good article! Let’s not break the codes. It’s too obvious but safe under the present circumstances! X has two political groups, Xa and Xb. Both want to be at the helms of state power.
To achieve this, no amount of loss is too exorbitant to them. First, because the losses are not
personal to either Xa or Xb. Secondly, state power generates so much monetary dividend
that neither would leave any stone unturned to stick to or go for it.
The solution lies in democratising X to an extent where state power would only mean
extreme responsibility with no monetary dividend accruing through it. This calls for building institutions which can rein in the demons in politics, and curtail the power of those who
hold high positions in the state.
We have to build an Xc to achieve this. The sooner the better.
WaliulHaqueKhondker

Siyal Hasnat
Shamser: The writer is not wrong when he says
that the 3rd estate is always going to be commoners dormant until something else riles them.
So to that extent the 5th is not only a tool (which
you are right about) but also contains within the
group a probable leader for the 3rd & therefore
distinct as a group & not merely a tool leading a
change. It is a well written article that simplifies
the concept for a majority of the readers who do

The trail reeks of unfairness. Eye for an eye is
never the option. Shunting them to the noose,
is there a difference between us and them?
Death penalty is never a deterrence to crimes.
Adnan Qader
Whatever. The mastermind behind this crime
has escaped from this trial.
Munim Abdullah

November 6

Nov 3

Shamser
In trying to explain to us what the Fifth Estate
is, the writer has confused himself and written
a muddled article. What he is presenting is a
poorly framed freedom of speech and expression
argument wrapped in shiny packaging. The fourth
estate of the media has been weakened by the
state, but also by the media as pointed out in this
paper’s “The yellow submarine” op-ed. If there is
to be any change, it has to come from the masses
waking up or the upper classes finding a different
way of doing things. History has taught us that.
The fourth and fifth estates can be tools, not the
change itself. Individuals within the third estate
can be agents of change using these tools. The socalled power of the fifth estate the writer tries to
talk about is either the power of truth if he means
the use of the fifth estate, AKA the mass social
media at our disposal, or the potential power of the
third estate if he means the ability to assemble and
protest. Reading the headline made me expect an
interesting, well-formulated article. Reading it has
left me very disappointed. A missed opportunity.

November 7

BGB DG: Decision on
acquitted jawans ‘later’

The ‘Fifth Estate’
not have prior knowledge of the 5th estate, like
me. I have now sought out more information on it
& glad that I learnt something new today.
In Bangladesh, it will never be the people who
will bring change or the upper class, it will be circumstances and a leader who will inspire us out of
this mess. That will come from the truth that the
people from the 5th will work to give to us.
I read most of your work matthew. Its generally well
written, has an emotional tone & real voice behind
it. It’s refreshing to see passion in writing and heart
as opposed to cold method that oped’s adhere to.
Shamser
Siyal Hasnat: Good reply, but it ignores the
lessons of history. In the simplest of terms, the
fourth estate is the media and the fifth estate is
the social media. Where do you think people who
operate these and work within these spheres
come from? The upper class and the masses,
meaning that they are the only ones who can
bring change. No-one else can because no-one
else exists. Our independence is an example of
the point history reinforces. Those are the only
two groups who can bring change. Dhaka Tribune
produces some very good op-eds. The objective
of these need to be more than being simplistic
and making a hash of an explanation. Read the
one I mentioned in my older post for an example
of a good op-ed and the standard that Dhaka
Tribune has. Matt may write well but he misses
an opportunity here. This is the sort of op-ed that
needs to be scrutinized before it goes to print, not
be blindly praised afterwards.

This is unfortunate but the reason for mutiny
should be resolved to avoid such things in the
future.
Seraj Ulhuda
Why did intelligence fail to prevent these killings from happening? Who are to blame in the
intelligence office and why do we then need
intelligence at all?
Babul Sarwar

Egypt: Morsi’s trial
adjourned until Jan 8
November 5

It was adjourned because Morsi was
brave enough to say in the beginning of
the trial “I am Dr Muhammad Mursi and
I am the legitimate president of the Republic.” Since his defiance caused uproar
in court they had to postpone it.
Ahmed Azwad Imtiaz

How to solve
Sudoku:
Fill in the
blank spaces
with the
numbers
1 – 9. Every
row, column
and 3 x 3 box
must contain
all nine digits
with no number repeating.

Code-Cracker

DHAKA TRIBUNE

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Op-Ed

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11

Monday, November 11, 2013

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Noor Hossain and our precarious democracy

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n Towheed Feroze
hey say people forget fast.
Well, there are of course
those with memories of
elephants, but most do
not remember episodes in
history; thus, with frayed memories
there is an attempt to understand the
present. This is indeed disheartening
because the present is but a result of
the past and there is no way we can
deny events gone by because, in the
political sphere, they have undeniable
influence on current day affairs.
Take Noor Hossain for instance!
Does the name ring a bell? Take a moment to pause. Rewind back to 1987 …
He was the street activist who had
democracy slogans plastered on his
chest back in 1987, during the anti-autocratic street movements.
Come on, you surely remember that
the Ershad of today, whose political
support is much sought after by the
major parties, overtly or covertly, was
the reviled one in the 80’s.
As for the new generation, Noor
Hossain was not a well-known political leader who played pivotal roles in
making kings or queens; he was not
even a shrewd political activist, using
his fame to carve out a political future.
Noor was a commoner who took
part in a demonstration and during
the crackdown was shot dead by the
law enforcers. The nation in 1987 was
outraged.
Many contend the sacrifice of
the man with democracy slogans on
his body precipitated the fall of the
Ershad regime.
We cannot say if the death of Noor
Hossain was the final galvanising
force, but the fact remains, in the late
80’s, all parties were united to bring
down a person whom they called “the
usurper.”
Noor Hossain’s death only made us
realise the need to form a front, forgetting all political differences.
November 10 is observed as Noor
Hossain Day, and it seems both the
two parties have issued separate
messages lauding the man’s ultimate
sacrifice for democracy, saying that

such a martyr would always be kept
high in the nation’s ideals.
Sorry to say this, but at a time when
the same two parties are involved in
a protracted game of stubbornness,
such lofty rhetoric appears vacuous.
Thinking back in retrospect, Noor’s
death appears futile.
The autocrat against whom he took
the street is very much a vocal side in
today’s politics, surviving, even thriving, simply on the forgetful nature of
the masses.
We forget too easily; that is why no
one remembers that, when the autocratic regime fell in December 1990,
the country went into a holiday mood,
cheering, exulting and hoping.
As this writer remembers December
6, 1990, field level politicians back
then recalled the fall of Noor on the
roads, terming it a turning point in the
democratic campaign.
Alas! More than 20 years later, democratic ideals appear to be diluted to
such a length that, on the one hand, a
soldier of democracy is honoured and,
on the other, obstinate “anti-democratic” stances are perpetuated.
In the meantime, autocrats are
ensconced!
We are not pointing fingers at
anyone though we must ask: Who is
to blame for the current debilitating
deadlock?
This writer does not understand

We can vote, but are our voices really being heard?

More than 20 years later, democratic ideals appear to be diluted
to such a length that, on the one hand, a soldier of democracy is
honoured and, on the other, obstinate “anti-democratic” stances
are perpetuated

the nuances of politics; however, if
he remembers correctly, before the
scrapping of the caretaker system, no
opinion of the masses – the main drivers of a democracy – was taken.
Maybe there is a rationale behind
revoking it. As a commoner with little
political acumen, I accept that. But,

wasn’t it evident during the time of
annulment that, when election time
arrives, this would become a major
contentious issue?
Whatever the case, the caretaker
system is not here anymore; therefore,
the best thing to do is to find a system
that epitomises the democratic ideals

for which Noor was left dying on the
road back in ‘87.
Both parties need to make some
concessions. They may not like it but if
Noor could give his life for democracy
then asking for some reasonable
compromises is definitely not too
much.
Meanwhile, there are reports
that certain outspoken TV talk show
speakers have received threats,
while in the case of Pias Karim, some
unidentified armed youths exploded a
bomb in front of his home, when they
failed to enter with force.
In a democracy, there will be
criticism. Also, in a democracy there is
no party, ruling or opposition, which
is flawless.
When top democracies in the world

T

he predicament of the modern
Tibetan is a poignant one: How
does one believe in rebirth
when the very symbol of that credo
– the 14th Dalai Lama – has himself
suggested that he may not return to
be the 15th Dalai Lama? It is akin to
Jesus Christ disowning the dogma of
resurrection.
For the past 54 years, ever since his
escape from the Chinese forces which
invaded his medieval Vatican in 1959,
the present Dalai Lama has lived as an
aging exile in India. His Holy See lies
on the wrong side of the Himalayas,
in the foothills above Dharamsala
(Kangra district).

The Tibetan community in McLeodganj is not a microcosm of
Tibet. It is a compressed facsimile of Tibet’s vast and ancient
culture, shrunk to a few minor monasteries, some shrines and
one or two high-tech centres

Dharamsala has little to commend
it except as a thoroughfare to McLeodganj, a higher hill resort that now
doubles as the temporal capital of the
Tibetan government in exile and the
spiritual seat of the Dalai Lama.
There are two roads that lead from
Dharamsala to McLeodganj. One is
9 km long and rises in a comfortable
gradient. The shorter one – 2 km. long
– ascends steeply up a precipitous
mountainside. It is perhaps symbolic
of the Buddhist mind that the road
most travelled is the arduous one.
The Tibetan community in McLeodganj is not a microcosm of Tibet. It is
a compressed facsimile of Tibet’s vast
and ancient culture, shrunk to a few
minor monasteries, some shrines and
one or two high-tech centres dedicated to the preservation and promotion
of Tibetan skills. Despite an endeavour to sustain itself, it is dependent
upon the largesse of outsiders. In that
sense, it is not dissimilar to Israel, an
artificially created state surviving on
donations.

The Thekchen Choeling, the main
temple, is the epicentre of faith in
McLeodganj. It is a modern building,
constructed in 1969 from offerings
made by devotees and pilgrims to earn
merit. The Dalai Lama lives close-by
but he has become a global-trotting
celebrity. His absence is symbolised by
an elevated throne from which, when
he returns to McLeodganj, he preaches
to his adherents.
Sitting at the feet of the empty
throne are rows of saffron-clad figures
– old and young, male and female –
each intoning from elongated printed
pages of holy texts. The lay folk are
allowed to observe from a distance.
They tell beads on benches or sitting
cross-legged, rotate prayer-wheels.
The more active prostrate themselves continuously in a gesture of
reverence to the Triple Gem – ie the
Buddha, his teachings, and the community. Such pilgrims stand before
wooden prayer-mats, then bend, slip
their hands into gloves that slide along
the polished surface, while the rest
of their body follows until it lays full
length. On pilgrim routes, this ritual
can cover often hundreds of miles.
This group, however, rooted to the
same spot looked as if they were using
spiritual exercise bikes.
One can circumambulate the hall,
rotate prayer wheels along the way,
and then go behind the throne to the
altar. High on it is a gilt statue of the
Buddha Sakyamuni, and against a
side wall, facing Tibet, are two others
of the Guru Padma Sambhava and
the Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of
compassion of whom the Dalai Lama
is a manifestation. Not many people
would notice a wooden replica of the
Lahore Museum’s Fasting Buddha.
Despite the spectacular views
that it affords across the valley, the
Thekchen Choeling is no substitute for
the imposing Potala Palace that still
dominates Lhasa city and where the
Dalai Lama used to spend the winter.
His summer residence – the Norbulinka – has been replicated about 6 km
away from Dharamsala. Landscaped
with ineffable taste and unlimited yen
by the Japanese, everything there – the

are constantly floundering or messing up, the bold, brazen declarations
of perfection without flaws, uttered
ceaselessly by our “immaculate” politicians, appear shocking.
Whether we have assimilated
democracy or not, we have certainly
learnt chutzpah!
Criticise and become a target! Noor
Hossain stood out in the procession
with “Let democracy be free” on his
chest – a sort of moving criticism of
the then regime. He ended up dead.
Now, those who speak fearlessly
also face intimidation. From 1987 to
2013 – 26 years have gone by – how
much has democracy evolved? l
Towheed Feroze is a journalist currently
working in the development sector.

D

The tired Tibetan
n FS Aijazuddin

SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN

R

M

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A

The gift of jet lag
temple, its surrounding gardens, even
the dolls in the Losel museum illustrating Tibet’s lost culture and customs – is
shrunk to a miniature scale.
Eating lunch at the Norbulinka café
forces one to believe in reincarnation. It takes an hour to get a bottle of
water, and a bowl of Thupka (a Tibetan
specialty of noodles and vegetable
soup, topped with a fried egg) takes a
lifetime to arrive.
The main monastery of Gyato lies
on the way back from Norbulinka.
Funded also by the Japanese, it shares
similarities with Bishop Cotton School
(Shimla) – a main central building,
dormitory blocks, and students from
the age of sixw upwards – except that
here the uniform is a red monk’s robe.
The head teacher Kelsang Norbu sits
beneath a tree, watching the children
scamper into their classrooms to wait
impatiently for their tardy teachers.
Senior students behave more soberly,
and ask politely where one is from:
“Lahore.” “Ah, Lahaul, Spiti?”
In McLeodganj, the headquarters
of the Tibetan government in exile are
opposite the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute (Men-Tsee-Khang),
where one can buy Tibetan tea to alleviate stress or have one’s horoscope
prepared by computer. The backlog of
demand by foreigners is daunting; it
takes six months to fulfil your order.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama,
has made every effort to provide his
people with modern skills and to
preserve Tibetan culture. Its religion
remains personified in him. He has
said that he may not reincarnate as the
15th Dalai Lama, and even if he does, it
could be as a woman.
That would be an innovation.
Britain has had queens as the head
of the Church of England, but never
a female Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Roman Catholic Church has only
recently begun electing non-Italians
as pope, but never a woman. Will
Tibetan Buddhism be the first spiritual
gender-bender? l
FS Aijazuddin, OBE, is the author of more
than a dozen books. This article was first
published by Dawn.

n Mohammad N Miraly

T

he haze of sleeplessness is like
one of those waking dreams
driven by the shaman’s potions.
I vacillate between terrible lethargy
and terrific clarity. Day and night
have lost their meaning, and I have
conquered Time.
This is the gift of jet lag: time
unencumbered. When your mind is
awake while others are unconscious,
it’s the ultimate escape from the world.
Time unencumbered is worth more
than all the iPad Airs money can buy.
It’s the only gift Santa can’t give
you. It’s the only freedom we can
aspire to in this post-slavery world.
Though our bodies be free (too
free), our minds are shackled by the
oppressiveness of our daily schedules.
Our smartphone taskmasters crack the
whip of constant answerability in an
age of perpetual connectivity.
Now the information is instant.
You can’t pretend you didn’t get the
memo. And the worst part – they know
we’ve “Read” their messages. (Then
comes the woeful slew of these: “Why
aren’t you answering meeeee :(:( … I
know you read my messagessss.”)
In our fast-paced world, escaping
the oppressive strictures on our time is
magic worthy of Gandalf himself. The
world of jet lag is the liminal space, the
hidden realm wherein we are freed of
the shackles of mundane time.
That phantom zone between
Time and Untime is our answer to
Braveheart’s exclamatory appeal – it’s
the “Freeeedom!” to explore strange
new worlds and to go boldly where no
man has gone before.
It’s the excuse to indulge
wanderlust, to find strange
compatriots in the night like Owen
Wilson did in Paris when everyone
he knew was sleeping. It’s the time to
ruminate over the new 1,000ish-page
Man Booker Prize-winner or illuminate
the mind with the soul of Rumi.
Or #werk on your bod with today’s
WOD. Or Netflix the end of “Breaking
Bad.”
It’s the chance to air guitar the
entire new Arcade Fire or to fervently

Y

S

believe you can paint as well as Mira
Schendel. Or that you can be the
next Puck or Lagasse. It’s the long,
numinous night to peregrinate under
the moon or meditate silently before
the clamour of the dawn.

Most people I know complain
about jet lag. But it’s the best
time in the world to do all the
things we don’t have time to
do in our daily lives

Had we but world enough, and time,
we’d mine all the rubies of the mind.
We’d saunter through life’s ebb and
sway, and conquer every Everest that
came our way.
Adventure would be mine, if I only
had the time. If my iPhone 5S (yeah
it’s gold) didn’t keep pinging and my
Newsfeed didn’t keep updating, I’d do
all the things I dream of doing when
I’m lying on my sofa eating.
There’s so much time we waste, it’s
a rare treat to be forced to be awake,
and to have the clarity of mind to do
something productive. Most people I
know complain about jet lag. But it’s
the best time in the world to do all the
things we don’t have time to do in our
daily lives.
It’s free space and time, in a
world of multiple distractions
and responsibilities, of crushing
consumerism and keeping-up-withthe-Kanye’s-itis.
It’s a parallel world of opportunity.
So let’s heed the misquoted but
nevertheless immortal words of
middle-aged actor Brad Pitt: “Time! –
take it, it’s yours!” l
Mohammad N Miraly holds a PhD from
McGill University in religion, ethics, and
public policy.

n Afrose Jahan Chaity
A two-day classical dance festival ended with huge festivity at Chhayanaut
on November 9. An array of Indian
classical dance forms like; Manipuri,
Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Gaudiya and
Kathak was featured by both promising
and renowned dancers at the event.
Every day of the festival, the beginning of the programmes were marked
by lighting prodips (clay oil lamps).
On the first day, the students of Chhayanaut presented a group performance as the opening act that also had
elements of the conventional Manipuri
styles. They have expressed their devotion to the creator, gurus and the audience through their remarkable performance. The glory of Manipuri dance
was revealed in all its beauty, specific
values and conventions.
Professional dancers Sonia Rashid
and Farhana Ahmed performed a duet
while Sweety Das performed a solo Manipuri piece.
The first Bharatnatyam presentation
of the festival was by Srishti Cultural

Centre, followed by Amit Chowdhury
and Puja Sengupta’s solo performances
consecutively. The performances were
characteristically patent in techniques,
with movement in sync with complicated counter rhythms.
In the pantomime sections, the
story was communicated through
movement of hands and various body
parts were in motion in a fascinating
and is the conventional language of
communication of the dance genre.
Both the dancers were mind-blowing
in delivering even the most negligible
mudra.
Eminent Manipuri dancer of Bangladesh, Tamanna Rahman performed
Abhisarika on the second day, which
was a tale of love. The lovelorn woman showed different moods in the performance. The first part showed her
preparation and anticipation of meeting her lover. Then, her anxious wait
for his arrival was portrayed in a brilliant manner and finally her anxiety
when he did not turn up. Her every act,
emotion and movement was so vivid
and mesmerising that the audience

was quiet with captivated attention.
Following Tamanna’s enticing presentation, the audience was once again
charmed with the performance of the
graceful dancer Warda Rihab and Subrata Das, both of whom performed solo
numbers titled Tanum and Goshthe Biday Jachon. A group performance titled
Mandira Nartan by Nrityam Nrityashilan Kendro, was the last performance
of Manipuri style at the festival.
The students of Chhayanaut then
performed Ganesh Bondona and Alaripo. Several artistes, colourfully and
traditionally dressed, expressed their
devotion to the creator and gurus. The
last Bharatnatyam performance of the
festival was a group performance by Jagoo Art Centre.
Captivating dancer Rachel Priyanka
Paris presented a solo performance on
the second day of the festival. She took
the breath way of a houseful of audience through her graceful perfomance
on Gaudiya form. It was a unique combination of history, literature, poetry,
drama, music, and rhythm.
Kathak was the last featured style

Monday, November 11, 2013

of the two evenings. On the first evening, a Kathak performance started
with Munmun Ahmed’s solo performance and second performance was
a group presentation by Munmun
Ahmed’s dance school Rewaz Performers School. Tahnina Islam Jhumi,
Tabassum Ahmed and Mehraz Haque
Tushar performed solo presentations
consecutively.
On the last day, Nrityanchal presented a group performance named
Protibimbo (mirror), which was nicely
organised and choreographed by Shibli
Mohammad. Kaniz Fatema’s solo performance Thumri was a straightforward recital.
Masum Hossain performed a recital
called Jhaptal. The packed audience
greeted the demonstration with rounds
of clapping. Then, Snata Shahrin presented Tarana, a solo performance.
The event ended with another performance of Tarana.
The festival was a huge success in
terms of houseful audience and the
response was tremendous to say the
least. l

Butterfly goes places pleasing to it and
it pleases wherever it goes. Drik Gallery
is now a place where the city dwellers
can go to please themselves since the
gallery is displaying some fabulous
snapshots of various types of butterflies of Bangladesh. An exhibition titled Chobi Dekhe Shekha- Butterflies of
Bangladesh Inventory Phase 2 began on
November 8.
After covering butterflies of eight
districts in Bangladesh in its first
phase in 2012, the second installment
of Butterflies of Bangladesh Inventory
(BBI) has come up with a checklist of
butterflies of another eight districts. A
group of young photographers worked
from June 2012 to May 2013 for digital
recording and data collection to cover
Gazipur, Narsingdi, Comilla, Manikganj, Kishoreganj, Narayangaj, Panchagarh and Bandarban (only Lama
Upazilla).
The team comprised Mirza Shamim Ahasan Habib, M Shahtabul Islam,
Avra Bhattacharjee, Kazi Farhed Iqbal,
M Monowar Mahmud Jewel, Sikder Nizamul Haque, Saifuddin Saif and Maruful Alam Chowdhury.
M Monwar Hossain, a professor of
Department of Zoology at Jahangirnagar University, had worked with the

Miss Venezuela wins
Miss Universe 2013
n Entertainment Desk

Band Poraho perform at the launching ceremony of Dugdugi, an online music
streaming and legal music downloading site in Bangladesh, at the Russian Cultural
Centre in Dhanmondi on November 8. A huge crowd gathered at the programme that
also featured performances of an array of popular bands such as Arbovirus, Karnival,
Crematic X, Minerva, The Manager, Zagforth, Crusader and Downfall Extinction

team to validate the species.
In the exhibition, each photograph
includes a brief description of the species including common names, scientific names, wingspans, colours, habits,
host plants and geographically recorded locations.
BBI is working with the goal to prepare a full checklist of butterflies that
exist in the country.
Butterflies are important pollinators and also good indicators of the
ecological quality of a habitat. Some
butterflies are vital for economically
important plants and are also an important component of the food chain.
According to the group, in order to
show their importance and raise
conservation awareness of this creature, the group devoted itself, voluntarily, in the field of environmental
sustainability.
The exhibition will run till November 14 and remain open from 3 to 8pm
every day.
Bangladesh Representative of the
International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) Ishtiak Uddin Ahmed
inaugurated the exhibition as the
Chief Guest. Chief Financial Officer of
the sponsor organisation, HSBC Bangladesh, Stephen John Ball was also
present at the occasion as the special
guest. l

ON TV
MOVIE
7:30pmHBO

Happy Feet Two

An evening of extravagant entertainment marked the crowning of Gabriela Isler from Venezuela as Miss Universe 2013 at Crocus City Hall in
Moscow, Russia. Patricia Yurena Rodriguez from Spain finished as the
first runner-up, while Constanza Baez from Ecuador was the second
runner up. Manasi Moghe from India made it to the top 10 of Miss
Universe 2013.
Gabriela Isler, who stands 1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in), competed as Miss
Guarico, one of 24 finalists in her country’s national beauty pageant
Miss Venezuela 2012, held on August 30, 2012 in Caracas. She won the
Miss Elegance Award and became the ninth Miss Venezuela winner
from Guarico, gaining the right to represent her country in Miss Universe 2013.
Narrowed down from top 16, the top 10 comprised India, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Ukraine, USA, Brazil, Great Britain, Philippines and Spain. The 16 semi finalists included Costa Rica,
Ukraine, China, Ecuador, Great Britain, Indonesia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spain, USA, Nicaragua, Switzerland,
India, Brazil and Philippines. Top 5 finalists included Ecuador, Brazil,
Spain, Philippines and Venezuela.
The evening took off with a grand performance by International
recording artist Emin, in between which the girls from 86 countries,
including Manasi Moghe from India, were introduced. Miss Universe
is the oldest International beauty pageant and an eminent panel of
jury made the selection process tougher for the contestants. l

To Tom Cruise, being away from his
daughter while shooting a big-budget action movie “feels like” serving in Afghanistan.
The Top Gun actor was responding to a lawyer’s question comparing the extended time away from
Suri while filming a movie to a soldier’s tour in Afghanistan, according to legal papers obtained by the
Daily News.
In the deposition, the Mission:
Impossible star also compared his
Hollywood hamming to Olympic
training.
“There is difficult physical
stamina and preparation,” he
whined. “Sometimes I’ve spent
months, a year, and sometimes two
years preparing for a single film.
“A sprinter for the Olympics,
they only have to run two races
a day,” he continued. “When I’m
shooting, I could potentially have
to run 30, 40 races a day, day after
day.”
Cruise also listed off blockbusters such as Rock of Ages, Jack Reacher,
Oblivion and the upcoming Edge of
Tomorrow as physically and mentally taxing films for which he busted

his behind.
Cruise’s lawyer said the analogies were being taken out of context.
“The assertions that Tom Cruise
likened making a movie to being
at war in Afghanistan is a gross
distortion of the record,” lawyer
Bert Fields said in a statement.
“What Tom said, laughingly, was
that sometimes ‘that’s what it feels
like.’”
Fields continued that a video of
the deposition shows Cruise and
his lawyers were laughing at his
answer.
When Cruise was later asked if
the situations were comparable, he
said, “Oh, come on.”
“Tom is a staunch supporter of
our troops and would never say
that making a movie was even remotely comparable to fighting in
Afghanistan,” Fields added.
Also during the September 9 sitdown, Cruise was grilled on whether he or his lawyers accused Bauer
Media, which publishes the two
celeb magazines, of being pro-Nazi
and anti-Semitic.
Cruise said he “didn’t authorize”
his attorneys to make those allegations. l

n Entertainment Desk
Actor Shahid Kapoor began shooting for
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider in the scenic Dal
Lake here. The 32-year-old actor, who is teaming up with Bhardwaj again after Kaminey, is
starring opposite newbie actress Shraddha
Kapoor in the film adaption of Shakespearean
tragedy Hamlet.
A fairly large crowd had gathered near the
shooting location as Shahid and Shraddha shot
a few sequences for the movie inside the lake.
Over the past few years, Bollywood has
returned to Kashmir as the situation started
improving in the valley. Late filmmaker Yash
Chopra shot large parts of his last movie Jab
Tak Hai Jaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan and
Katrina Kaif, here.
However, the portrayal of Kashmir and its
people in some of the movies has left the locals including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
angry. Omar expressed his resentment over
Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer Yeh
Jawani Hai Dewani, which was partly shot in
Kashmir, for presenting the locales of the valley as that of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
But Bhardwaj has assured Omar that Haider is about the people of Kashmir. The director, referring to meeting with Omar, said he
told the Chief Minister that “every character is Kashmiri in my film. It is the story of
the people of Kashmir--both in period and
present.” l

Did you know?
Newcastle’s Tim Krul
made 14 saves against
Tottenham yesterday,
the most by any
Premier League keeper
in a single game since
2006/07

Sport

Monday, November 11, 2013

14 Nadal downs
14 Milan held by
Federer to
bottom club Chievo,
reach final
Roma draw

DHAKA TRIBUNE

13

15 Second game of
world chess duel
ends in draw

Siddikur wins
Indian Open

The golfer overcomes nerves to clinch
his second Asian Tour title
around the turn opened the door for his
n Asian Tour
rivals to get close to him.
Bangladesh ace golfer Siddikur Rahman
claimed a nerve-wracking one-stroke
victory over local hopes SSP Chowrasia
and Anirban Lahiri at the 50th Hero
Indian Open on Sunday for his second
career title on the Asian Tour.
Leading by four overnight, the tenacious Siddikur made life difficult for himself with a wobbly final round of threeover-par 75 at the Delhi Golf Club which
allowed the chasing pack to breathe
down his neck and apply the pressure.
Chowrasia, who has won twice
previously at the fabled Delhi venue,
agonisingly missed a five-foot birdie
chance on the 72nd hole to force a
play-off as Siddikur ended a three-year
winless run following his career breakthrough at the 2010 Brunei Open.
Lahiri, who closed with a 70, shared
second place with Chowrasia in the
US$1.25 million tournament as he also
rued a missed birdie chance on the last
hole to force extra time in front of a
large gallery, who were hoping to celebrate an Indian champion in the golden
edition of the Hero Indian Open.
Siddikur, who led the Hero Indian
Open from the opening round after
what he termed as “playing the best
golf of my life”, started strongly with
birdies on the second and fifth holes
but four bogeys over a six-hole stretch

He steadied the ship with birdies on
13 and 14 but a calamitous triple bogey
seven on 15 and another bogey on 16
ensured a dramatic and nervy finish.
But on the par three 17th, Sididikur
nailed what would be the most important birdie of his tournament from 15
feet to regain a one-shot advantage as
his rivals eventually missed opportunities to force a play-off.
Siddikur, who earned US$225,000
said: “I am so happy. After I won in Brunei, I struggled to win a tournament. It
was a long day for me but it’s been the
best golf of my life this week. Honestly, I didn’t put pressure on myself but
I had some bad shots for bogeys but I
had a good feeling that I would win this
tournament. The putt on 17 was certainly the winning putt.”
“I had a four-shot lead but on this
golf course, I knew that Anirban (Lahiri) and S.S.P. Chowrasia will not play it
safe. They could have shot a low score.
In that case, I didn’t play safe and continued playing aggressively.
“After winning Brunei in (2010) I
was really hungry to win more tournaments but it didn’t happen. However,
I still remained confident and I told
myself that a big victory is coming my
way. That big victory happened today,”
smiled Siddikur. l

BOA finalises list
for training camp
n Shishir Hoque

Mohammedan clinch
hat-trick chess title

Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA)
has finalised the list of 26 athletes
across five disciplines for the projected 10-month isolated training camp
ahead of the Commonwealth Games
and Asian Games in 2014 along with
the Asian Youth Games.
The BOA is also likely to settle with
six coaches and one camp commander
for the long-term camp, which is likely
to start at the end of November and will
be held at Cantonment. The BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza, however, is yet to submit the written recommendation to the president, chief of
army staff general Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan.
Along with eight shooters, there are
seven players from archery, four from
swimming, three from boxing, and three
from taekwondo in the training program.
The notable inclusion in the list is
veteran shooter Sharmin Akhter Ratna
who was earlier doubtful. Another
shooter Rabbi Hasan Munna, who won
gold medal in the Bangladesh Games in
the 10m air rifle, was excluded from the
list due to his recent performance.
Meanwhile, the estimated budget for
the 10-month long camp is Tk20m. Every athlete will receive daily allowance,
transport, kits and monthly salary of
Tk12,000.l

n

Raihan Mahmood

The two foreign Grandmasters of
Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club
Ltd, who propelled the club to its hattrick title of the premier division chess
league, termed Bangladesh chess has
the potential to go ahead.
Tajikistan GM Amonatov Farrukh
and Russian GM Sergey Volkov along
with local GM’s Niaz Murshed and Ziaur Rahman registered the hat-trick by
clinching the Rupahali Sarees Premier
Division Chess with 16 points from
nine games. In the last round yesterday the treble winners beat Gopalganj
Chess Club.
Mohammedan all but assured the
title in the very first game of the league
when they defeated Bangladesh Navy
by 3.5-.05 points and the win made all
the difference. Navy finished second
with 14 points.
Amonatov, the lone GM of Tajikistan who has a rating of 2616, said the
level of competition was not very high
as not many strong teams were there,
but he was surprised to see the potential. “This is my first appearance
in Dhaka and I did not have good idea
about Bangladesh chess, after playing

the league I am surprised to see that
there are many talented players,” said
Farrukh.
The Tajik GM said Bangladesh Navy
team was their main challenger and
the Bangladesh Navy GM’s Reefat bin
Sattar, Abdullah al Rakib and Enamul
Haque Razib are good players. “They
are good players and as far I saw, their
style of playing is also good, even little
Fahad Rahman showed a lot of potential, I hope Bangladesh progress in the
chess arena,” he added.
Volkov also echoed the same tune
and said, “I love playing in Bangladesh,
and I enjoyed the league, I hope it would
be more competitive in the future.”
Abdullah al Rakib also admitted that
the defeat against Mohammedan made
the journey difficult. “We failed to
implement our plans, we hoped to win
against Niaz Murshed and Zia and earn
a draw against one of the foreign GMs.
Reefat was in a good position against
one of them, but we could not succeed,
however we admit that Mohammedan
was superior in strength,” said Rakib.
Rakib opined that if the league was
played in game points rather than
match points then the level of competition would have been greater.l

Siddikur Rahman poses with the trophy after winning the Hero Indian Open 2013 in New Delhi yesterday

BKSP starts with a
win at Nehru Hockey

n Raihan Mahmood

BKSP defeated reigning champions Government SR Section School Ladowali,
Jalandhar by 4-1 goals in the first match
of the Steelbird International 42nd Nehru Junior Hockey at Shivaji Stadium,
New Delhi yesterday. Ashraful, Sagar
and Emon scored one goal apiece for
BKSP, the lone sports training institute
of the country, while they also received
an own goal. The losers won their previous match against a local school by 7-2
margin. BKSP will play their next match
tomorrow against Guruda Hockey
Academy at the same venue.l

U-18 divisional
cricket postponed
n Minhaz Uddin Khan
The Young Tigers Under-18 Divisional
Cricket Competition which was scheduled to start at 17 venues across the
country from November 15, have been
temporarily suspended due to the political unrest in the country, informed
the Bangladesh Cricket Board Game
Development yesterday. The BCB will
announce a revised schedule for the
competition in due course. l

AP

BCB forms 10-member
disciplinary panel
n Mazhar Uddin
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)
formed the much awaited disciplinary
panel during a meeting on Saturday.
The panel will be headed by former
Supreme Court judge and former chairman of the Bangladesh Law Commission Md Abdur Rashid.
The other members of the panel are
Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury
(Former Judge of Bangladesh Supreme
Court), Justice Shiek Rezowan Ali
(Former Judge of Bangladesh Supreme
Court), SKM Anisur Rahman Khan
(Former District and Session Judge),
Ajmamul Hossain, QC, Nihad Kabir
(Barrister-at-Law), Nirmalendu Goon
and former cricketers Shakil Kasem,
Fakrul Ahsan, Mahmudul Hasan Saju
and Mahboob Hussain Nantoo.
The chairman of the panel is
expected to form more than one anticorruption tribunal which will conduct
the trials of the nine individuals,
including suspended national cricketer
Mohammad
Ashraful,
accused
for the their involvement in match
fixing in the Bangladesh Premier
League (BPL).
It has taken more than two and a

half months for the panel to start the
process since the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) charged
seven individuals with involvement
in match and spot-fixing in the second
edition of the BPL and two others for
not reporting corruption approaches.
The charging of the nine individuals on August 13 this year unleashed a
scandal storm in the country, leading
BCB to promise a quick trial and say
that there would be stern consequences if anyone was found guilty.
There was also a clause in the
board’s anti-corruption code to start
the hearing within 40 days of the receipt by the participant of the Notice
of Charge, but this deadline expired on
September 23.
“The tribunal is now all set and will
start their proceedings hopefully by
next week,” informed BCB’s acting CEO
Nizamuddin Chowdhury without giving any explanation when asked about
the delay.
It was further learnt that Mosharraf
Hossain Rubel, one of the accused who
received the provisional suspension
along with the other accused, and Robin filed a case with the lower court last
month against the suspension. l

BFF to give players’
verdict this week

Bangladesh, MPCA
share U-16 series
n Minhaz Uddin Khan

n Raihan Mahmood

The fourth and last three-day game
between Bangladesh Under-16 and
MPCA Under-16 (Madhya Pradesh
Cricket Academy) ended in a draw at
Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury
Stadium yesterday. The teams shared
the trophy as the first three games of
the series also carried the same result.
Batting first, MPCA rode on opener
Akarsh Singh’s 68 to post 212. Nayeem
Hasan and Shafiul Hayat Ridoy picked
three wickets each for the home side.
In reply, Bangladesh made 365-9.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Jakir Ali led
the hosts with an unbeaten 102. The
youngster hammered 10 fours in his
216-balls knock. Earlier, Pinak Ghosh
gave the side a steady start scoring 95.
Ritesh Shakya registered a fivewicket haul to lead the MPCA bowlers in the game while Sagar Sharma
bagged three wickets.l

Bangladesh
Football
Federation’s
Player Status Committee is all set to
provide the verdict for the players,
who have reportedly taken money
in advance from two Bangladesh
Premier League (BPL) clubs, on
Wednesday.
The two clubs who are engaged in the
tug of war, reigning champions Sheikh
Russell and Dhaka Mohammedan,
is reluctant to register their players
unless the problem is solved. Defender
Mamun Mia, winger Zahid Hossain,
midfielder Shakil Ahmed and Nahidul
Islam have allegedly taken money
from Mohammedan and later changed
their mind to join Sheikh Russell.
Another winger Shariful Islam has
joined Abahani amid the protest of
Mohammedan.

The Players Status Committee was
supposed to sit to provide the verdict
yesterday, but due to the ongoing
strike they have deferred the date of
the meeting. “We have collected all
the necessary papers and just need
to discuss the fine points, we hope to
settle the issue in the next meeting,”
said Abu Nayeem Shohag, the general
secretary of BFF.
Meanwhile, the ongoing strike and
the national holiday on Friday, on
the occasion of holy Ashura, led the
speculation of extending the deadline
of players’ transfer again. The latest
deadline of BPL players’ registration
is November 15 and till date only three
clubs among the 10 have completed
their registration formalities.
However, BFF till yesterday was not
in favor of extending the deadline for
the fourth time. l

14

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Monday, November 11, 2013

Roma draw
as Milan held
by Chievo
n Reuters
AC Milan’s problems continued when they were
held to a goalless draw
at bottom club Chievo in
Serie A on Sunday and
leaders AS Roma drew
1-1 at home with lowly Sassuolo who
equalised deep into stoppage time.
There was also last-minute drama
at Atalanta where Marko Livaja’s goal
in the 93rd minute gave the hosts a 2-1
win over Bologna, and Cagliari, where
Daniele Conti’s 88th-minute free kick,

RESULTS

Genoa

2-0

Atalanta

2-1

Cagliari

2-1

Chievo
Parma

0-0
1-1

Roma

1-1

Portanova 30,
Kucka 35
Brivio 73,
Livaja 90+3
Conti 43, 88

Lucarelli 64
Longhi 14-og

Verona

Bologna

Bianchi 76

Torino

Immobile 52

Milan
Lazio

Balde 50

Sassuolo

Berardi 90+4

his second goal of the game, gave the
Sardinians a 2-1 win over Torino.
Milan, missing striker Mario Balotelli through suspension, extended
their winless run to six games in all
competitions, heaping more pressure
on their phlegmatic coach Massimiliano Allegri.
They finished with 10 men after Riccardo Montolivo was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 81st minute while Chievo striker Sergio Pellisier
was also dismissed in stoppage time
and had to be restrained by officials as
he left the field.
Roma, who won their first 10
games, were held to their second
successive 1-1 draw. Rudi Garcia’s team
went ahead in the 19th minute when
Alessandro Longhi turned the ball into
his own net as he attempted to clear
after his goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo
had brilliantly saved Alessandro
Florenzi’s shot.
Roma had further chances but were
surprised by a late flourish from the
Serie A debutants. There was a warning
when goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis
denied Antonio Floro Flores before
Berardi fired the equaliser with almost
the last kick of the game. l

Milan's Brazilian forward Kaka fights for the ball with Verona's Dario Dainelli during their Serie A match in Verona yesterday

Ibra nets hat-trick as PSG cruise
n AFP, Paris
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored
a hat-trick as Paris SaintGermain
strengthened
their position at the top of
the Ligue 1 table with a 3-1
win against Nice at the Parc
des Princes on Saturday.
Ibrahimovic gave the defending
champions the lead shortly before the
interval before adding a penalty early
in the second period and then completing his hat-trick after Nemanja
Pejcinovic had pulled a goal back for
the visitors.
The result, followed by secondplaced Lille’s goalless draw with
Guingamp, moved PSG four points
clear at the top of the table, with a
faltering Monaco side a further point
behind.
But if anyone is to prevent PSG from

retaining their title, they will have to
end the capital side’s remarkable run
of not having lost over 90 minutes in 33
games since the start of March.
Blanc made changes to the team
that was held by Anderlecht in the
Champions League in midweek, with
Thiago Silva wearing the captain’s armband in his first start since suffering a

RESULTS
PSG

3-1

Bastia

1-0

Rennes

Guingamp

0-0
0-0
1-1

Lille

Ibrahimovic 39, pen-57, 75
Bruno 8

Lorient
Toulouse
Sylla 42

Valenciennes
Angoua 6

1-1

Nice

Pejcinovic 70

Reims
Ajaccio

Lasne 7

Montpellier

Stambouli 90+2

thigh injury at the end of September
and Javier Pastore also returning after a
spell on the sidelines due to injury and
loss of form.
It was the Swede’s eighth Ligue 1
goal of the campaign and his 13th in his
last seven matches for the club in all
competitions, strengthening his case
in the vote for this year’s FIFA Ballon
d’Or award.
“If Ibra can be one of the contenders along with (Cristiano) Ronaldo,
(Franck) Ribery and (Lionel) Messi,
I’d be happy,” admitted Blanc. “He has
scored some spectacular goals, but in
terms of what Ribery has won you can’t
do better.”
Aside from Lille’s stalemate Saturday’s late action produced another
0-0 draw between Lorient and Reims,
Bastia beat Rennes 1-0, and Toulouse
v Ajaccio and Valenciennes v Montpellier ended 1-1. l

Kenya’s Yego
claims Athens
classic marathon

AFP

Ronaldo out of this
world, says Ancelotti

n AFP, Athens

n AFP, Madrid

Kenya’s Hillary Kipkogei Yego won the
31st Athens classic marathon on Sunday in a time of two hours, 13 minutes
and 59 seconds. The 33-year-old Yego
was followed across the finish line by
three of his countrymen.
In second came Dickson Kimeli who
clocked 2:14.40, David Kipkorir Rutoh
took third at 2:14.47 and Paul Kibet Kosgei filled fourth at 2:16.58.
“It was the first time that I participated in the Athens classic marathon. I am
very happy that I managed to achieve
my personal best time. The weather
conditions were very good,” Yego said.
The women’s race was won by another Kenyan, 26-year-old Nancy Joan
Rotich in a time of 2:41.38. She finished
19th overall. l

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti described Cristiano Ronaldo as an out of
this world talent after the Portuguese
scored his third hat-trick of the season
in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Real Sociedad.
Ronaldo’s treble took his tally to 24
goals in just 17 games this season as Real
moved to within three points of La Liga
leaders Barcelona with the Catalans not
in action until Sunday.
“He has a level from another world.
He scores with an incredible ease and it
is difficult to find words for him,” said
Ancelotti.
The former Manchester United man
then dispatched a penalty past Claudio
Bravo for his second of the afternoon before Gareth Bale provided his fifth assist
in four games for Sami Khedira to smash

home a fourth before half-time. Ancelotti was delighted with what he saw as
arguably the best 45 minutes his side
have produced since he took over in July.
“I think that the first-half was perfect. We played very well, with pace, efficiency in front of goal, sometimes we
played long, sometimes short, but it all
worked well,” said the Italian.
“In the second-half the tempo was
slower, but that is normal when you are
4-0 up. We had a few more defensive
problems, but overall the defence
was also very good.” All three central
midfielders played very well today.
They complement each other and
helped the team.
“I have said many times that Alonso
has the experience and the quality to
make us play how we want. It is obvious
that he is a very, very important player.”l

Nadal downs Federer to reach final
n AFP, London

Paris St Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimovic (R) celebrates with team mate Lucas Moura (L) after scoring against Nice during their French Ligue
1 match at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris on Saturday
REUTERS

Dortmund’s Subotic
out for six months
with knee injury

n Reuters, Paris

Borussia Dortmund’s Serbia defender
Neven Subotic will miss the rest of the
season after tearing ligaments in his
right knee, the Bundesliga club said on
Saturday.
He was injured at the end of the
first half as he tussled for the ball with
VfL Wolfsburg striker Ivica Olic during
Dortmund’s 2-1 away defeat.
“He must count on a break of at least
six months,” the club said in a statement.
The 24-year-old, who was raised in
Germany after his family moved there
when he was six, joined Dortmund in
2008 and has won two Bundesliga titles with the club. He played for Serbia
at the 2010 World Cup.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back stronger
than ever,” Dortmund quoted Subotic
as saying. l

Mourinho forgives
penitent saviour Hazard
n AFP, London
Jose Mourinho praised Eden Hazard after the Belgian finished a difficult week
by converting a hotly disputed 96thminute penalty that prevented Chelsea
from suffering a second successive Premier League defeat.
Hazard was disciplined after missing training this week, but he was
restored to the line-up against West
Bromwich Albion on Saturday and
struck the added-time equaliser that
secured a 2-2 draw.
The 22-year-old had taken an unauthorised trip to France last Sunday and
was delayed when he lost his passport,
but Mourinho insists the matter is now
closed.
“I don’t need to accept his apology. I
don’t need to think any more about it,”
he said.

“It was a big penalty. Penalties are
easy to score in training sessions - I
score - as they are when you’re winning
3-0 or 4-0. But this was a difficult one
and the kid was very calm.”
Mourinho refused to agree with his
former colleague and insisted his own
side had been the victims of an injustice in the build-up to Stephane Sessegnon’s 68th-minute goal, which put
Albion ahead after Shane Long’s header had cancelled out Samuel Eto’o’s
opener.
The Chelsea manager thought that
Sessegnon had fouled Branislav Ivanovic before scoring and said: “It’s a
free-kick, a big free-kick, just in front
of the fourth official.
Clarke and Mourinho embraced at
the final whistle and the West Brom
manager insisted they would not discuss the penalty.l

Rafael Nadal won the latest instalment
of his epic rivalry with Roger Federer as
the Spaniard swept into the final of the
ATP World Tour Finals with a 7-5, 6-3
victory on Sunday.
Nadal was in commanding form in
the last four showdown at London’s O2
Arena and his 22nd win in 32 meetings
with Federer booked the world number
one’s place in Monday’s final against
Novak Djokovic or Stanislas Wawrinka.
But there was nothing routine about
Nadal’s latest show of force against Federer as it marked the first time he had
ever beaten the Swiss great indoors after four defeats, including a loss in the
2010 final of the Tour Finals.
That was the 27-year-old’s only previous appearance in the final of this
prestigious season-ending event, but
he looks in the mood to finally end his

long wait to lift the trophy after halting
Federer’s remarkable run of success in
the tournament in just 79 minutes.
Federer, a six-time winner of the
event, had reached the last three finals
of the Tour Finals, winning twice before losing to Djokovic last year.
But this has been Nadal’s year and
the 13-time Grand Slam winner is now
just one more victory away from finishing a glorious campaign by adding the
last major prize missing from his glittering CV.
Despite his struggles against Federer on the fast indoor courts that so
suit the 17-time Grand Slam champion,
Nadal was seen as favourite in many
eyes after a remarkable return to the
top of the world rankings after seven
months out with knee tendinitis.
Nadal has now reached 14 finals
this season, with 10 titles including the
French and US Opens.

But, while Nadal has thrived over
the last 11 months, Federer has endured arguably the worst season of
his career, dropping to seventh in the
world, winning just one title and failing
to reach a Grand Slam final for the first
time since 2002.
Nadal had swept through the group
stage with three successive victories,
while Federer was pushed to the brink
of elimination by Juan Martin del Potro
before recovering to beat the Argentine
in three sets.
After a tight opening to the first set,
Federer had Nadal under pressure in
the sixth game, but his failure to push
home his advantage proved the decisive moment of the match.
Federer had a break point on three
occasions and twice Nadal was able to
hit his way out of trouble before the
Swiss star missed with a wild and wayward forehand.l

Norwich bounce
back to escape
bottom three
n AFP, Norwich

Norwich City escaped from the Premier
League relegation zone by coming
from behind to secure a much-needed
3-1 victory over West Ham United at
Carrow Road on Saturday.
Thrashed 7-0 by Manchester
City last weekend, Norwich looked
in danger after Ravel Morrison put
West Ham ahead, but they hit
back through Gary Hooper, Robert
Snodgrass and Leroy Fer in the second
half to arrest a sequence of four games
without a win.
As well as easing the pressure on
manager Chris Hughton, Norwich’s
success lifted them out of the
bottom three and above West Ham
to 15th place, with Stoke City sliding
into the relegation places as a
consequence.l

Rafael Nadal returns the ball during his men's singles match against Roger Federer in the
ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London yesterday
REUTERS

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Sport

Hodgson eager
to tackle England
penalty jinx

Quick Bytes

Guangzhou’s AFC win
a boost for Chinese
game, says Lippi

n AFP, London

Marcello Lippi says Guangzhou Evergrande’s AFC Champions League win is a
major boost for Chinese football, ending
a drought for the nation’s clubs stretching back nearly a quarter of a century.
The World Cup-winning Italian coach,
who already has multiple league titles
and a UEFA Champions League win on
his impressive CV, wrote his name into
Chinese football history with the win on
away goals after a 1-1 second leg home
draw against FC Seoul on Saturday.
Evergrande reached the AFC final in
impressive form, smashing eight goals
past their semi-final opponents, Japan’s
Kashiwa Reysol, after scoring freely
throughout the tournament. They drew
the first leg of the final 2-2 in Seoul.
“Winning this cup is very important for
Chinese football,” said the silver-haired
Lippi, now eyeing an unprecedented
continental and domestic treble after
romping to the league title in his first
full season at the helm. “From our side,
we grew a lot and we tried to reach this
level of being able to compete at international level with other teams.”
–AFP

Kenyan captain
Obuya suspended
for two matches

Kenyan cricket captain Collins Obuya will
miss the two warm-up matches for the
upcoming ICC World Twenty20 qualifying tournament after being suspended
for assaulting a fellow player, officials
reported on Saturday. Obuya, a star
of Kenya’s 2003 World Cup semi-final
success, was involved in an altercation
with team-mate Irfan Karim during
a recent tour of Sri Lanka. Karim, an
opening batsman was also handed a
one-match suspension by the Cricket
Kenya disciplinary committee which met
on Friday to deliberate on the case. “Both
players have been warned that any future
misbehaviour will land a stiffer action being taken against them,” the committee
said in a statement. Obuya will not play
the two warm-ups against Namibia and
Hongkong in the United Arab Emirates on
Tuesday and Wednesday. The ICC World
Twenty20 qualifying tournament featuring 16 teams including Kenya is scheduled
to start on November 15. Only six teams
will qualify for the World Twenty20
championships in Bangladesh in March.
–AFP

Nuremberg fuming
after latest German
goal blunder

Bottom side Nuremberg have added to
calls to introduce goal-line technology
into the Bundesliga after they were
denied a goal, even though the ball had
bounced over the line. With his side
2-1 down after 81 minutes at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday,
Nuremberg’s Josip Drmic saw his shot
hit the crossbar, then bounce behind the
line and out into play. To his dismay, the
goal was not given by referee Christian
Dingert and Nuremberg went on to lose
3-1 and stay bottom of the Bundesliga.
“The ball must be a full diameter behind
the line, which it wasn’t,” insisted Dingert, although replays looked like it was.
With Hawkeye goal technology having
been introduced in England’s Premier
League this season, there are growing
calls in Germany for it to be introduced
to the Bundesliga as well.
–AFP

Zanetti shows
class is permanent
on Inter return

Inter Milan’s evergreen Javier Zanetti
showed class is permanent after returning from a seven-month injury lay-off
as a late substitute in their 2-0 Serie
A win over Livorno on Saturday. The
40-year-old’s 10-minute cameo lit up a
pedestrian match at the San Siro which,
until Yuto Nagatomo struck in stoppage
time, looked to have been settled by
a 30th-minute howler from Livorno
keeper Francesco Bardi, who is on loan
from Inter. “I have to thank the immense
crowd, the president (Massimo Moratti),
all those who stayed close to me from
the club doctors to my team mates
and everyone who wanted me to come
back,” said Zanetti who has been sidelines with an Achilles tendon injury. With
the Moratti era drawing to a close after
18 years, with the club president having
recently sold a controlling stake to Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir, Zanetti
is a timely reminder to the current squad
of what it means to be a winner.
–Reuters

Day’s Watch
Ten Cricket
5:00PM
Pakistan v South Africa
5th ODI

15

Monday, November 11, 2013

Manchester United's Dutch forward Robin van Persie (4L) scores the opening goal during the English Premier League match against Arsenal at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester,
northwest England yesterday
AFP

England manager Roy Hodgson says he
is willing to think outside the box in a
bid to end the national team’s record of
penalty shoot-out heartache at major
international tournaments.
England have been eliminated on
penalties at five of the last eight showpiece competitions in which they have
competed and former head coach SvenGoran Eriksson admitted in his new autobiography that he regretted not seeking out the services of a mental coach.
The Football Association has moved
to address the problem by employing
Dave Reddin, who helped the British
Olympic team with their psychological preparations for last year’s London
Games, and Hodgson says he is looking
forward to working with him.
“To suggest that the mental side
plays no part, that’s a nonsense. Of
course it does,” Hodgson said.
“Whether or not someone who’s
a trained psychologist could actually
help a player shoot better from a penalty shoot-out or whether his club and
his coaches and manager can help him,
that’s a discussion. l

United sink Arsenal to kickstart season
n AFP, Manchester

Manchester United
reinvigorated their
Premier League title
defence by winning
1-0 at home to
leaders Arsenal on Sunday to close to
within five points of the early-season
pace-setters.
Robin van Persie claimed the game’s
only goal in the first half, scoring
against his former club for the third
match running, to condemn Arsene
Wenger’s side to a first league loss
since their defeat by Aston Villa on the
opening day.
Victory allowed United to climb

to fifth in the table, with defeats for
Tottenham Hotspur and local rivals
Manchester City earlier in the day
enabling them to move above both of
their fellow title contenders.
Having seen his side pick up just
a point from earlier games against
Chelsea, Liverpool and City, United
manager David Moyes will hope
Sunday’s victory marks the end of an
awkward bedding-in period at Old
Trafford.
He will also have drawn strong
encouragement from the performance
of Phil Jones, who began the game in
midfield but deputised magnificently
at centre-back after Nemanja Vidic had
to go off through injury.

RESULTS
Sunderland

1-0

Man City

Tottenham

0-1

Newcastle

Man United

1-0

Arsenal

Swansea City

3-3

Bardsley 21

Van Persie 27

Bony 56,86,
Dyer 74

Remy 13

Stoke City

Walters 8, Ireland 25,
Adam 90+6p

Arsenal remain top going into the
international break, two points above
Liverpool, but having overseen an
impressive win at Borussia Dortmund
in mid-week, Wenger is likely to have
been concerned by their toothlessness.

Second game of world chess
duel ends in draw
n

Agencies

World champion Viswanathan Anand
continued his title defence, holding off
world number one Magnus Carlsen of
Norway to a draw in quick time in the
second game of the World chess championship on Sunday.
Anand was playing with white
pieces and said he was mildy surprised at Carlsen’s opening moves, in
the press conference that followed the
game.
The opening move of the second
game today was a big success for
Carlsen and it was a great pull back by
the Norwegian after Anand had got an
easy draw as black in the first game
yesterday.
“I will not talk too much about the
opening move. I think the critical point
was on move 18 when Vishy could have
tried but black seemed to be doing
fine,” world number one Carlsen said.
Anand said things might have become risky for him after Carlsen’s
opening surprise coming in the form of
a Caro Kann defense.

Norway's Magnus Carlsen (R) plays against India's Viswanathan Anand during the FIDE
World Chess Championship in the southern Indian city of Chennai on Saturday REUTERS
“I had to decide whether to fly blind
because it’s clear that he would have
been into more details. I decided to go
for a slightly solid line, a slightly pru-

dent decision today, essentially after
the queen exchange there is nothing
much happening,” said the five-time
champion Anand.l

Illness
deprived
Arsenal
of
the services of centre-back Per
Mertesacker, with Thomas Vermaelen
deputising, while Mathieu Flamini
replaced
Tomas
Rosicky
after
overcoming a groin problem.
United made four changes to the
team held 0-0 by Real Sociedad in the
Champions League on Tuesday, with
Jonny Evans, Michael Carrick, Jones
and Van Persie coming into the side.
The stakes, and the opposition,
made for an untypically raucous
atmosphere inside Old Trafford and the
home side made a vigorous start.
Earlier, Gus Poyet’s struggling
Sunderland jolted the Premier League
with an electrifying 1-0 win over

Pietersen knee trouble
flares ahead of Ashes
n AFP, Sydney
England have fresh injury concerns
ahead of next week’s Ashes series
opener, with star batsman Kevin Pietersen sent for treatment on a sore knee
following a scare over wicketkeeper
Matt Prior.
Pietersen would have a cortisone injection, coach Andy Flower said, adding that he hoped the pivotal player
would feature in England’s final warmup match against an Invitational XI
starting in Sydney on Wednesday.
Flower added that he was confident
that Pietersen, who put off surgery to
play in the series, would be fit for the
first Ashes Test in Brisbane starting on
November 21.
The 33-year-old has been working
overtime in the gym to strengthen his
knee, which he damaged on England’s
tour of New Zealand earlier this year.
“Kevin has had a slight recurrence
of that knee issue, and he’ll be going to
Melbourne for a scan and a cortisone
injection -- so he won’t be travelling
with the rest of the team,” Flower said
late Saturday.

NZ-Sri Lanka one-dayer
abandoned due to rain
n

AFP

Bad weather forced the first one-day
international between New Zealand
and Sri Lanka to be abandoned in Hambantota on Sunday.
New Zealand were 13-1 from 4.2
overs in reply to Sri Lanka’s 288-9
when heavy rain lashed the southern
port city and wiped out the rest of the
match.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews hit halfcenturies as Sri Lanka scored 288-9 in
the first one-day international against
New Zealand in Hambantota on Sunday.
Stand-in captain Kyle Mills, who
won the toss and elected to field, gave
the tourists a flying start when he
trapped opener Dimuth Karunaratne
leg-before with the first delivery of the
innings.
Dilshan and Sangakkara, however,
settled in to pulverise the Black Caps

during a second-wicket partnership
of 137.
Sangakkara made 79 off 81 balls with
nine boundaries and two sixes, while
Dilshan scored 81.
Left-arm spinner Anton Devcich
dealt a double blow when he removed
Kumar Sangakkara and former captain
Mahela Jayawardene in the space of
four deliveries to reduce Sri Lanka to
139-3.
But Dilshan put on 58 for the fourth
wicket with skipper Angelo Mathews,
who smashed nine fours and a six in an
unbeaten 74 off 64 balls.
Mills, who was named captain for
the tour after regular skipper Brendon
McCullum was rested, was New
Zealand’s most successful bowler with
three for 49.
Mitchell McClenaghan and Devcich
claimed two wickets each.
The second of the three one-dayers
is also scheduled to be played at the
same venue on Tuesday. l

big-spending Manchester City at the
Stadium of Light.
On a great afternoon for the creaking
giants of north-east football, local
rivals Newcastle United won by the
same scoreline at Tottenham Hotspur
to move into the top half of the league.
The unexpected scorelines came as
a welcome bonus for leaders Arsenal as
the North Londoners prepared for the
big match of the day against champions
Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Sunderland, second from bottom
with just four points from 10 games
before Sunday, chalked up a fourth
successive 1-0 home win over City
thanks to a 21st-minute goal from Phil
Bardsley on the left side of the box. l

“I don’t think it’s going to be a huge
issue. He’s had a couple of these injections before, and they’ve been successful.”
Pietersen later tweeted: “I am fine.”
Flower said the effects of the cortisone injection lasted for months and
there was no concern about Pietersen’s
condition in the England camp.
“I’m working on my legs, hoping
they hold up because I’ve had the knee
issue so I’ve just got to make sure the
rehab continues,” Pietersen told the
England and Wales Cricket Board website.
“Because I could break down and
I don’t want to break down. I want to
play the whole series.”
Pietersen was dismissed for just
eight in the rain-ruined match against
Australia A in Hobart, which finished
on Saturday, after sitting out the tour
opener in Perth.
Prior will have scans after suffering a calf strain in the drawn four-day
match in Hobart. He is unlikely to play
in Sydney but England hope the wicketkeeper-batsman will be able to take
the gloves in Brisbane.l

Johnson must play
in Ashes: McGrath
n AFP, Sydney

Former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara poses with the wax statue of Master Blaster
Sachin Tendulkar at Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday
AP

Test great Glenn McGrath says enigmatic paceman Mitchell Johnson must
play in the Test series against England,
believing he can be a big part in Australia recapturing the Ashes.
The erratic left-armer, who has been
taunted by England’s notoriously raucous Barmy Army fans in the past, is
in line to share the new ball with Ryan
Harris and Peter Siddle in the Ashes
opener in Brisbane on November 21.
The 32-year-old was dangerous
but expensive in his return first-class
match for Western Australia this weekend, taking five wickets for a combined
162 runs, but McGrath said he must be
picked.
“He has to play. I think he’ll play a
big part in this series,” McGrath said
Sunday.
“I’ve been impressed with what I’ve
seen. He had a few issues, probably a
little bit technically but just as much
mentally, and he did some work with
(Australia pace great) Dennis Lillee and
really sorted them out.”l

The on-going 84-hour-long shutdown
once again came as a terrible blow to poor
people as a minor boy and a driver are
passing excruciatingly painful times at
the beds of Burn and Plastic Surgery unit
of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance called
the countrywide shutdown demanding
an election under a non-partisan administration.
Mohammad Roni, a 13-year-old boy
received burn injuries in his sleep inside a
bus parked in the city’s Diabari Bus Stand.
Roni comes from Doulatpur of Kustia.
He is son of a poor day labourer Mohammad Almash and indisposed Sujan Begum.
He works as a bus helper at Jonosheba Paribahan on the Gabtoli-Satoria
route. On Saturday night after a trip from
Gazipur he was done for the day’s work
around 8.00pm.
As he came back to Mirpur he asked
for Tk20 from his bus driver Mohammad
Shahin and wanted to go back home to his
sick mother as the hartal was to start the
next morning of Sunday.
However, driver Shahin asked him to
stay back in the city. After dinner from a
roadside cheap hotel he went to have a
good night sleep inside the bus.
He locked the doors and windows of
the bus at Konabari Bus Stand of Diabazari at Mirpur before he went to sleep. He
woke up with a start in the early hours of
Sunday with flames leaping all around
him.
Perplexed, the boy kicked open a bus
window and in no time jumped out of it
into the street.
With the help of a local he went to a local clinic of the area. Later, he contacted
his family members who resided in Savar
area.
The on-duty doctors of the clinic transferred him to the Burn and Plastic Surgery
unit of the DMCH with 13% burn injury.
Visiting the burn unit at Sunday noon
this correspondent found Rony’s grandmother Roksana and father Almash
standing at his bedside.
Almash said as Rony’s mother was sick
she could not come to the hospital. We
sent my son to work as a bus attendant as
we do not have sufficient money to get by.

while covering hartal

“I think that is my fault,” he said posing a
question: “Why do poor people have to
suffer always?”
In another incidence of arson attack,
Harun-or-Rashid, 32, a microbus driver of
Grameen Rent-a-Car of Mymensing area,
was going back to his home after dropping his passengers at Amirabad around
8.30pm.
When he reached near Shalokpara area
some pickets hurled bricks that broke his
car windshield and landed on his head.
Soon after he stopped the microbus
and the pickets in the wink of an eye set
fire to his car with petrol and before Harun could manage to come out of it the
fire burnt 24% of his body. Later he, with
the help of locals, first went to a local clinic and later rushed to the DMCH around
3.30am.
Hailing from Shaporan area of Sylhet
he has a 3.5-year-old son and an 11-yearold daughter.
His wife, Farida Begum, rushed to the
hospital. Fahmida, her daughter, said if
something happened to her father they
would have nothing left except for extending hands for alms on streets.
Partha Sharothi Das, an attending doc-

n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Mintu Pal (top), Sumi (bottom left) and microbus driver Harun-ur-Rashid lying in hospital beds with severe burn injuries SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
tor of the DMCH Burn and Plastic Surgery
unit told the Dhaka Tribune that they
were trying hard to provide the patient
with better treatment.
Apart from the two, about 15 other arson attack victims have been admitted to
the DMCH with burn injuries during the
two spells of 60-hour-long hartals.
The last 60-hour hartal claimed two
lives where a minor Monir Hossain died
as he came to capital to visit with his fa-

ther while another victim Mostafizur died
as he came to the capital to do his office
work.
Meanwhile, in two separate incidents
last night, at least nine people, including
women and children, suffered burn injuries as pickets torched the vehicles they
were on near the capital’s Bahadur Shah
Park and Dhanmondi.
All the victims were admitted to the
Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit at Dhaka

Shutdown breaks supply chain,
business confidence
n Asif Showkat Kallol
It seems less likely that the government
would be able to business confidence
of the businessmen in the wake of
the opposition-called 84-hour-long
shutdown which disrupts supply chain
management.
The decline in supply of essentials
to markets would heavily weigh on
spending, inflation and economic
growth, official sources said.
The finance division in its efforts to
maintain a smooth supply of essentials
during shutdown took a number of
steps including market management
and regular market monitoring during
shutdown.
A senior official of the Finance
Ministry who is also on fiscal
coordination council committee said
tomorrow’s meeting would discuss
supply chain issue.
Deputy Secretary to the Finance
Ministry Rehana Parvin on May
3 issued a letter to the Commerce
Ministry asking what measures were
taken to keep a good supply chain
during hartal.
The Commerce Ministry came up
with its reply that it had instructed all
ministries including Home Ministry and
divisions and district commissioners to
take needful steps.
But during the long-hour hartal,
these directives hardly worked, said an
official of the ministry concerned.

According to a UNDP report, because
of disruption in supply chain during
shutdown the prices of essentials
increase by 12%.
As per the Bangladesh Bureau
of statistics (BBS), the average
inflation fell by 0.10% from 7.03% in
October.
In last month, food inflation rose
from 0.45% to 8.38% while it was 7.93%
in September.
The World Bank, IMF and Asian
Development Bank have already
expressed their concerns that the
impending street agitation in the runup to the national election would take
a heavy toll on the economy and its
growth.
They estimated that the country’s
GDP would remain below 6% in the
current fiscal although the Finance
Ministry expected the GDP to grow by
6.6% compared to 6.3% in the previous
fiscal.
The government has a budgetary
target of achieving 7.2% GDP growth in
the current fiscal.
Sources in the ministry said Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina also asked her
cabinet members, high officials and
different agencies of the government
to take cautionary measures following
political impasse affecting economic
growth.
Shamsul Alam, a member of General
Economics Division (GED) told the
Dhaka tribune the coordination council

meeting would not be able to build
confidence in the businessmen and
consumers.
It would only issue directives on
how to maintain a good supply chain,
he added.
The GED member further said the
country’s farmers or producers and
consumers were hard hit by the longtime shutdown.
The prices of the essentials decline
in the rural areas where those are
produced while in the urban areas their
prices rise.
Onion Importer Abul Aziz petitioned
the Ministry of Home for security to
carry 1500 tonnes of onion imported
from Myanmar, but the Home and
Commerce Ministries did not respond
to his prayer.
The market-monitoring team fails
to visit the city kitchen market because
there is shortage of policemen, said a
Commerce Ministry official.
Nirod Barun Saha, president of Rice
Dealers’ Association of Naogaon told
the Dhaka Tribune, “We have no choice
but to observe hartal one day earlier
than when it is enforced.”
In general, a total of 1,000 trucks
come to Dhaka carrying rice and
different types of vegetables, but the
number of goods carriers comes down
to only 100, he pointed out.
Prices of rice and vegetable increase
by five to fifteen taka during Hartal
period, added the dealer. l

Medical College Hospital.
Pickets set fire to a human hauler at
around 9pm in front of Bahadur Shah
Park, injuring eight people.
A 12-year old child was also hurt when
another human hauler was set ablaze at
Dhanmondi road number 15.
Of the injured, Montu Paul, 34 and Md
Milon, 12, bore 90%-96% burn injuries,
while the extent of the wounds was 15%40% for the others. l

A photojournalist has lost his vision
while capturing a clash between police
and hartal picketers in capital’s Bangshal area on Saturday.
Currently admitted at National Institute of Eye Science and Hospital,
Mosharraf Hossain, 26, is a photojournalist of Focus Bangla, an online news,
photo and video agency.
Yesterday he told the Dhaka Tribune
that on the frightful night he was having tea at Al-Razzak Hotel in the area
around 10pm.
Hearing the noise of blasts outside
the restaurant, he went out with his
camera to click some images.
After clicking the camera once,
something hit his right eye and he lost
vision in that eye.
He was admitted to the Dhaka
Medical College Hospital where the
doctors referred to admit him to the
National Institute of Eye Science and
Hospital.
Dr Golam Mostofa of National Institute of Eye Science and Hospital told
the Dhaka Tribune that something
hard hit on the surface of his eye directly that made some serious injuries
on his cornea and damaged around 90
percent of it.
“Yesterday we conducted an operation to repair it and ran some tests including X-ray,” he said.
“We would be able to comment over
his situation after getting the reports of
the tests. We are trying our best to recover the eye,” he added.
Prof Dr Din Mohammad Nurul
Haque, director of the hospital, said:
“A meeting would be held on Monday
to review all the test reports and we
would decide our next course of treatment analysing the reports. We are trying our level best to provide the best
possible treatment to the patient.”
Ataur Rahman, uncle of the victim,
told the Dhaka Tribune that Mosharraf
got injured and lost his vision while
performing duty and it was government’s responsibility to ensure best
possible treatment for him so that he

Reshuffle in the army
n Tribune Report

The government yesterday made a number of changes in some significant posts
of Bangladesh Army, including the president’s military secretary and the brigade
commander of 46 Brigade in Dhaka cantonment, according to a military source.
In the latest reshuffle of around a dozen army officials, Maj Gen Abul Hossain,
engineering chief at the Army Headquarters, has been appointed as President
Abdul Hamid’s military secretary. He will
replace Maj Gen Fakhruddin, whose next
posting has not yet been finalised, said
the source.
The source further informed that 46
Brigade Commander Brig Gen Waker Uz
Zaman has been promoted to major general rank and posted as military secretary
at the Army Headquarters. Waker will replace Maj Gen Abdur Rahman who was
appointed the senior directing staff of National Defence College.
Rapid Action Battalion’s (Rab) Addi-

tional Director General (operation) Col
Mujib has been appointed as brigade commander of 46 Brigade and has been promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General.
Director of National Security Intelligence (NSI) Col Sohel, who was on deputation, has been promoted to Brigadier
General and appointed as commander of
President Guard Regiment (PGR). Sohel
will replace Brig Gen Maqsud, whose next
posting has not yet been finalised.
Brig Gen Sharfuddin, who was a defence adviser at the Bangladesh High Commission in the UK, has been appointed as
brigade commander of 81 Brigade in Savar
cantonment. Sharfuddin will replace Brig
Gen Sikder who has been appointed as
a brigade commander of Ituri Brigade in
Congo UN peacekeeping mission.
Sikder will replace incumbent Brigade
Commander of Ituri Brigade in Congo Brig
Gen Anis. After completion of UN mission
Brig Gen Anis has been posted to Border
Guard Bangladesh (BGB) as additional director general of the paramilitary force. l

can get back his vision.
Abdul Kuddus, officer-in-charge
of Bangshal police station, said: “We
fired around a dozen rubber bullets
while some picketers in a procession
hit the on-duty police officials with
cocktails around 10pm on Saturday
at Bangshal area. We do not know if
anyone got injured in the procession
as we were just trying to maintain
the law and order situation of that
area.”
Minister of State for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanok went
to visit Mosharrof around 1.30pm yesterday.
He said he would try his level best to
help the victim get best possible treatment and get his vision back.
Mosharrof is a resident of 82/2 Bangladuar, Nazirabazar area in the capital
and is Son of Nayem Ahmed.
Currently he is undergoing treatment at bed no 37 in the men ward of
National Institute of Eye Science and
Hospital. l

Demonstrate
goodwill for dialogue:
Chinese ambassador

n Tribune Report

The Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li
Jun hoped that the ruling Awami League
and the main opposition BNP would take
concrete efforts to resolve the current
political deadlock through dialogue.
“Same as the Bangladesh people, I am
deeply worried about the recent development of the political situation. I hope
that the two prominent political parties
would take concrete efforts to let each
other know of their good intentions for
dialogue and reestablish the people’s
confidence by resolving the differences through it,” the ambassador said in a
statement yesterday evening. The ambassador’s statement came at a time when a
series of hartals are being observed by the
BNP-led 18-party alliance and the government launched a crackdown on the
opposition by detaining five BNP leaders,
including three top leaders, of the party. l

City schools start selling admission forms
n Mushfique Wadud
Sale of admission forms of the non-government schools started yesterday, while
the government-run schools are yet undecided when to start selling the forms.
Among the known schools in the capital, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College
started selling admission forms yesterday, Ideal School and College to start
from today, while Motijheel Model High

School and College is scheduled to start
from tomorrow.
Deadline for collecting forms of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College is November 14. VNC Principal Manju Ara Begum told the Dhaka Tribune that they got
good response on the first day of form sale.
Ideal School and College will continue
selling forms till November 18 and the
form price is fixed at Tk200.
Motijheel Model High School and Col-

lege will take students in class I-IX, and
selling of admission forms will continue
till November 30.
Meanwhile, Sajal Kanti Mandal, director (secondary) of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, told the
Dhaka Tribune that they would decide
today as to when to start the sale of admission forms for government schools.
He said they were facing problems to fix
the admission date because of hartals. l

‘Confined trial’ allowed for genetically modified rice, potato
n Abu Bakar Siddique
The government is reportedly trying
to introduce two genetically modified
(GM) crop varieties of rice and potato
in the country, following the release
of four other brinjal varieties which received final approval last month.
Among the varieties, Bangladesh
Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has
planned to introduce a Vitamin A-enriched rice variety named “golden rice”
which recently received approval for
confined field trial from the National
Bio-safety Committee.

“We received approval from the environment ministry to run the confined
trial to develop the rice variety,” said Dr
Mohammad Amir Hossain, senior scientific officer of the Plant Breeding Section of BRRI. Efforts will be made to get
the final approval to release the variety,
after cultivation is carried out for one
more season, he added.
The golden rice is widely acclaimed
for its reported potential to fight Vitamin A deficiency in expecting mothers
and children.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has

been developing GM potato varieties
by inserting pest and weather resistant
gene in two local potato varieties – Cardinal and Diamond.
“We could take two more years to
finalise the variety development of the
potato as it is yet to mature,” said Dr
Rafiqul Islam Mondol, director general
of the BARI. He also informed that confined trial for the potato varieties had
been allowed. The golden rice and potato varieties will become the latest GM
crops in the country following bt brinjal, which was approved by the government of October 30.

The genetically modified crop varieties like golden rice, bt brinjal and potatoes are “transgenic” crops, and need
special approval from the bio-safety
authorities for conducting field trials.
“The National Bio-safety Committee
will consider the approval of releasing
the agro-varieties after getting proper
application from the developers,” said
Muhamamd Solaiman Haider, member
secretary of the committee.
The objective for developing GM
crop varieties was to improve crop protection mechanism through introducing resistance against plant diseases

caused by insects or viruses or through
increased tolerance towards herbicides.
The government released four varieties of GM brinjals named bt Uttara, bt
Kajla, bt Noyontara and bt Isd 006 with
condition of cultivating the crops on a
limited scale. Among the varieties, Uttara
would be released in Rajshahi region, Kajla in Barisal, Nayantara in Rangpur and
Dhaka regions, and Iswardi Local or Isd
in Pabna and Chittagong regions on limited scales as per a production manual
following bio-safety guidelines.
The BARI has developed bt Uttara,
bt Kajla, bt Noyontara and bt Isd 006

from local varieties by inserting bt gene
into them.
Meanwhile, BARI DG Rafiqul Islam
told the Dhaka Tribune that after getting approval of four brinjal varieties,
approvals will also be soon sought for
releasing five other brinjal varieties developed with the bt gene. The five more
bt brinjal varieties are Pega, Dohazari,
Singnath, Islampuri and Khotkhotia.
“The GM crops are not only
high-productive and disease-resistant
but also save thousands of acres of
land, which ultimately helps in conserving biodiversity,” said Rafiqul. l

Food inflation soars due to supply disruption
Experts fear further rise if strikes continue
n Kayes Sohel
‘Food prices rose
because of supply
disruptions, which
caused demand to
exceed supply. I
expect food prices
might continue to
rise because of
continued strikes’

5.94%

5.02%

Urban areas

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director
of Policy Research Institute said series of
strikes have affected the country’s food supply, causing food items to become more expensive.
He said food price has increased during
the shutdown that caused higher transport
cost. “If food costs continue to spike, food

Urban areas

inflation could go up further in coming days.
Such an increase would hit consumer spending and could destabilise inflationary expectations,” he said.
In the rural areas, food inflation in last
month rose to 7.86% from 7.43% in the previous month. During the period, the non-food
inflation in rural areas was found declining

October

Somrat/GT/DT/Infograph

5.28%

September

6.44%

4.84%

Rural areas

5.59%

5.02%

5.94%

9.64%

Non-food
inflation
9.11%

7.86%

7.43%

8.38%

Food inflation
Rural areas
7.93%

Rising food prices driven by supply disruptions due to recent series of strikes has
pushed up food inflation for the first time in
three months.
Food inflation on a point-to-point basis
in October rose by 0.45 percentage point to
8.38%, which was 7.93% in September, according to data Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics released yesterday.
Analysts expect the pace of food prices
might pick up further in the coming months
due to the recent series of strikes enforced
by the opposition parties, demanding national election under a caretaker government system.
However, a continuous drop in non-food
prices has restricted overall inflation from
going up. Non-food inflation saw a fall of
0.92 percentage point to 5.02% during the
month from previous month’s 5.94%. This
restricted overall inflation to go up as it fell
slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 7.03% in
October from 7.13% in September.
“Food prices rose because of supply disruptions, which caused demand to exceed
supply. I expect food prices might continue
to rise because of continued strikes,” said
BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal.
However, the overall inflation was slightly down due to falling prices in goods and
services in the non-food sector, he said.
The commodity that posted the highest
price increase was potato, which surged by
46% in last one month, according to Trading
Corporation of Bangladesh.
Among other food items that posted price
increases during the period were pulses,
which posted a growth of almost 10%; onion
(local) 9% and rice (medium variety) 7%, it
said.

as it was 4.84% from 5.59%.
In the urban areas, the food inflation rate
witnessed rising trend during the period as it
stood at 9.64%, up from 9.11%.
The non-food inflation rate in urban areas
also witnessed a downward trend in October
as it stood at 5.28%, down from 6.44% in
September. l

WIMAX LICENCE FOR OLLO

Amtob demands review of allocation process, pricing
n Muhammad Zahidul Islam
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators
of Bangladesh (Amtob) yesterday protested the
spectrum allocation process and pricing for WiMax licensee Ollo, and demanded an immediate
review of recent changes in the BWA (broadband
wireless access) guideline.
At a press conference in Dhaka yesterday, the
association also called for a thorough consultation
with industry stakeholders on spectrum allocation
policies and procedure.
On November 4, the government decided

to award a WiMax licence with LTE (long-term
evolution) to the Ollo brand for only Tk2.45bn and
allocate it the most valuable 20MHz spectrum on
2600 bands.
LTE, a fourth generation telephone and mobile
broadband communication standard, will enable
Ollo to handle both voice and data services, making it the most influential operator in the country
despite spending much less than other operators.
Industry experts claimed that the deal with
Ollo would cost the country nearly Tk32bn, as the
present market price of 20MHz spectrum was
more than Tk34bn.

TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Amtob, said
the controversial government decision might disrupt
the level-playing field in the telecommunications
sector and create discrimination among operators.
“In the 3G spectrum auction, we acquired per
megahertz spectrum for Tk1.55bn. But now we
find that the government is allocating spectrum
for a certain operator for only Tk60m per MHz _
which will incur a huge loss for the country,” Nurul
Kabir told journalists.
He said the Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission (BTRC) had arranged an
auction in 2008 for awarding WiMax licences, but

it did not do so this time.
“As a regulator, BTRC has a duty to protect our
interests,” a senior official from a mobile operator
said. “BTRC should arrange an open auction as we
also want to participate.”
Amtob also noted that 2600 bands were specifically allocated for mobile spectrum from the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
However, the association was yet to decide
about challenging the government decision in
court, Nurul Kabir said in reply to a question from
the Dhaka Tribune.
 PAGE B3 COLUMN 1

2

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Political turmoil overshadows
demand for RMG wage hike
‘The issue may be resolved on the streets in the end’
n Tribune Business Desk
The prolonged political turmoil over the next
general election is not only degrading the
country’s political climate but also creating
a scope for the readymade garment (RMG)
owners to dodge the workers’ demand for
hiking their minimum wage, observed workers’ leaders.
Though both Awami League and BNP
claim to represent the majority of the people, the causes of 4 million garment workers
— the rights to earn living wages, safe working environment, and to have the real scope
to form basic trade union — have received no
attention in the mainstream political agenda, they alleged.
Garment Workers’ Unity Forum President
Moshrefa Mishu said the silence and disregard could be heard loud in recent times
as neither of the two parties have come
forward with any suggestion to resolve the
dispute between the unions and the owners
over the minimum wages in the sector, reports UNB.
The mechanism of a tripartite consensus on the wages among the Labour Ministry, the workers’ representatives and the
owners’ representatives through the minimum wages board is also being affected and
delayed by the recent political crisis, she
added.
Mishi added: “The wages were to be declared by the minimum wages board within
three months of the formation, whereas the
board placed its recommendations after five
months. Moreover, we think the recommen-

BBF and Millward Brown
award top brands

n Tribune Business Desk
Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) in collaboration with Millward Brown Bangladesh (MBB)
organised the fifth “Best Brand Award Bangladesh” in Dhaka on Saturday.
The event was arranged to honour the
leading brands in Bangladesh in 30 categories based on a countrywide consumer research carried out by Millward Brown Bangladesh, said a press release.
Fair & Lovely was identified as the best
overall brand of the year followed by Lux and
Nokia. In the local brand category, Radhuni
Spice came out as the best.
A special award was given to Dr Mak Yuree
for being selected as one of the superhuman
of the world by Discovery channel.In addition to the award ceremony, the event also
hosted the book launching of Professor Nirmalya Kumar’s new book “Brand Breakout”.
Millward Brown South Asia Region Managing Director Prasun Basu, BBF Chief Advisor Professor Ferhat Anward, Advisor Visual
Artist Nazia Andaleeb Preema and Founder
Shariful Islam were present at the event. l

dation of Tk5,300 minimum wage is not at
all acceptable.”
She mentioned instance when owners’
representatives declined to attend a meeting
of the wages board due to hartals. “Actually, they (owners) used the hartal as alibis for
delaying the process, with an aim to diffuse
the movement for living wages as long as
they can.”

‘And we see, the political leaders of
both the ruling and the opposition
parties are not speaking about the
minimum wage. Awami League and
BNP have unlimited unity in this
regard’

On the other hand, she continued, the
workers also had to remain cautious about
declaring mass programmes to gear up the
movement for Tk8,000 minimum wage,
considering the chance of getting at the
crossroad of the political conflict.
“Pressing home the demand for the logical minimum wage has been a tough task
amid the recent political conflict. Workers
have no parties and we always want to ensure that our protests are not guided towards
violence and destruction of the industry,”

said Mishu.
“And we see, the political leaders of both
the ruling and the opposition parties are not
speaking about the minimum wage.
Awami League and BNP have unlimited
unity in this regard,” she said, “How can
they speak for us? They actually serve the
interest of the owners. Everyone knows
these parties consist of a good number of
RMG owners.”
Socialist Labour Front general secretary
Razequzzaman Ratan said the causes of
workers, farmers and other oppressed classes have always been dumped beneath the
loads of the political doldrums by political
parties.
Asked about the RMG owners’ denial of
the recommendation by the minimum wages
board and to raise the wages, Razequzzaman
said, “It’s a trick by the owners as they are
taking the chance from the political instability and trying to divert the focus from the
demand of Tk8,000 minimum wage.”
About the owners’ threat to shut all the
factories down, Razequzzaman said the
owners cannot legally lay-off the factories
without discussing with the workers.
Both Moshrefa Mishu and Razequzzaman
Ratan noted that despite all the misty politics of the ruling class, the RMG workers are
resolute to stand firm with their demands
and are getting united to forge a strong
movement for ensuring a satisfactory minimum wage.
“If the present condition continues, I fear
the issue of the minimum wage will be resolved on the streets in the end.” l

Biman launches FFP, duty
free sky shop
n Tribune Business Desk
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has yesterday
launched a frequent flyer programme (FFP)
named ‘Biman Loyalty Club’ along with a new
duty free sky shop to raise the standard of the
national flag carrier. Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister M Faruk Khan were present at the
launching ceremony at a city hotel yesterday.
Under the FFP, any passenger can avail a
green Biman loyalty card to start earning miles
after signing up online on the Biman website

or manually at sales outlets, reports BSS.
Biman also launched its new in-flight
duty free shop with a collection of wide
range world renowned brand products as desire of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Faruk Khan said the current government
believes Biman will be able to become a truly
international standard carrier soon by taking
initiatives such as the procurement of brand
new aircrafts including Boeing 777-300. The
minister expressed his believe of making Biman a profit making airline by next year. l

Agro-productivity
project in progress
n Tribune Report
The government is implementing a World
Bank funded project to improve agricultural
productivity and ensure food security for the
people of Bangladesh.
The Integrated Agricultural Productivity
Project would directly benefit approximately 300,000 small and marginal farmers in
agro-ecologically constrained areas, says the
World Bank in a statement yesterday.
Among them, about 175,000 would be
crop farmers, 60,000 livestock farmers and
60,000 fish farmers.
The project will enhance the productivity of agriculture in the flash-flood and
drought-prone northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, and Lalmonirhat; and salt-affected tidal surge areas in the
southern districts of Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalokhati.
Two improved wheat varieties and one
improved mustard variety from the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, along
with two improved rice varieties from the
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute have already been released for farmers’ use.

The Integrated Agricultural
Productivity Project would directly
benefit approximately 300,000
small and marginal farmers in
agro-ecologically constrained
areas
In addition, eight improved production
packages for crops and three for aquaculture
have also been released.
The Department of Agriculture Extension
formed 1,875 Livelihood Field Schools and
conducted 7,245 demonstrations on various
crops in last fiscal year.
The target for this fiscal year is to form
2,740 LFS groups and conduct 13,000 demos. So far, more than 56,000 farmers have
adopted improved crop varieties and practices.
The Department of Fisheries has formed
1,185 groups and distributed fingerlings of
Tilapia, Koi and Pangus varieties to 9,375
farmers.
For livestock, 942 groups were formed
and more than 927 demos were conducted.
Nearly 20,000 farmers adopted improved
breed and husbandry practices whereas
11,600 fish farmers adopted improved aquaculture.
Over 87,000 farmers have received various skills and technical trainings, in crops,
livestock, fisheries and from the Bangladesh
Agriculture Development Corporation and
Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute.
The project is funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP),
a multi-donor trust fund.
The World Bank is supervising the project
(GAFSP Grant of $46.31) and the remaining of
$3.69m is being used for a separate capacity
building component supervised by the FAO.
The project is being jointly implemented
by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Stocks continue to rally shrugging
off political chaos
n Tribune Report
Stocks continued to gain amid volatility for
the seven consecutive sessions yesterday
with benchmark DSEX index climbing to
nearly four-month high, persistently shrugging off ongoing political turmoil.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange extended
trading hour till 3pm instead of usual 2:30pm
as it began trading half-hour late from the
scheduled time due to technical glitches.
After swinging between positive and negative initially, the benchmark index finished
44 points or 1% higher to close at 4,244 –
highest since July 17 this year.
However, the blue chip index DS30 fell 17
points or 1.2% to 1,436. The Chittagong Stock
Exchange Selective Categories Index, CSCX,
rose 76 points to 8,264.
The key event that would have a significant impact on stock market was hard nature in rally of sector specific stocks where
buyers were leading over sellers, said Lanka
Bangla Securities in its market analysis.
Till now, the fresh strike in the political
arena could not distract investors’ mind on
account of positive cue from fundamental
side of market, it said.
The rally in the heavyweight banking sector gave a further boost to the benchmark index as the banks outshined the rest with an
impressive 4.7% gain.

Amtob demands
review of allocation
 PAGE B1

Another source said, “As the guideline is not
finalised yet, we cannot challenge it. As the
big player in the industry, we are seeking a
spectrum road map from the regulator.”
Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of Grameenphone, Ashraf H
Chowdhury, head of corporate affairs of
Airtel, Mahmudur Rahman, executive vice
president of Robi, and Zakiul Islam, senior
director of regulatory and legal affairs of
Banglalink, also answered questions from
journalists.
Earlier, BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose
said the telecom regulator was planning to
formulate a spectrum road map.
Ollo, a co-brand of Bangladesh Internet
Exchange Ltd (BIEL) and New Generation
Graphics Ltd (NGGL) applied for a WiMax licence in April this year. Both companies are
now owned by the Russian company, Multinet.
NGGL already got 20MHz spectrum _
worth more than Tk30bn _ free of cost on 800
bands in 2011.
In 2008, BIEL had participated in an auction for WiMax licencing, but it came in fifth
position and withdrew its earnest money.
Legal experts said BIEL was not eligible
for a WiMax licence, unless a new auction
takes place.
Amtob had previously sent letters to the
government and the telecom regulator expressing concerns about BIEL’s licence and
spectrum allocation. l

Six banks gained more than 9.0% and
consequently featured in the top ten gainers
chart. The sector also accounted for 37% of
the DSE total turnover that stood at almost
Tk5bn, which was more than 5% higher than
the previous session.
Telecommunications, pharmaceuticals,
engineering and power sectors saw price
correction on profit booking.

However, the market breadth remained
negative as out of total 284 issues traded,
131 closed green, 140 red and 14 remained
unchanged.
United Commercial Bank was the most
traded stock of the session with turnover
worth over Tk242m changing hands, followed by Meghna Petroleum, Mercantile
Bank and One Bank. l

Hasan, Kazi Food Industries Ltd CEO Tanvir
Haider Chaudhury, and Gemcon Group COO
Shaheen Khan were present at the launching
ceremony.
“The customers deserve high quality,
delicious and healthy food. We believe in
bringing the best of standards when it comes
to nutrition and food at Kazi Foods,” Hasan
said.
“So, we are bringing international standard halal and hygienic processed foods
across the nation. Our ready to cook frozen
chicken products are MBM, MSG and Nitrate
free with no antibiotic residues.” l

3

Palli Sanchay Bank
proposal goes to
cabinet today
n Asif Showkat kallol
The proposal to establish Palli Sanchay Bank
is being placed before the cabinet today.
The formation of the bank would be like
Grameen Bank in accordance with the draft
proposal.
The Banking and Financial Institutions
Division of the finance ministry and Bangladesh Bank have already given their consent
to the Rural Development and Cooperatives
Division proposal, official sources said.
The new bank would emerge from the government’s “One House, One Farm” project.
As per the draft law, the specialised bank
would enjoy exemption from value-added
and income taxes like Grameen Bank. The
bank will be governed under the Banking
Companies Act. However, Palli Sanchay
Bank’s managing director would be appointed, by the board of directors, with prior permission of Bangladesh Bank.
The bank’s paid-up capital would be Tk2bn, 80% of which will be provided by the
government through its “One House, One
Farm” project and authorised capital will be
Tk10bn.
The government will hold 51% of the
bank’s ownership and the remaining 49%
would go to the member cooperative societies of the “One House, One Farm” project.
However, the government will not take
any dividend against its shares. The board
of director of the proposed bank will be
15-member one while eight people to come
from the administration and remaining
members would come from association
members. The tenure of directors will be
maximum three years.
The MD will be appointed with prior approval of Bangladesh Bank by the board of
directors and the age of the MD will be 65
years, according to the proposal. Assets, officials and staffs of One House, One Farm project will be absorbed in the proposed bank.
Earlier in July, the prime minister asked
authorities establish a new specialised bank
named Palli Sanchay Bank to avoid the misuse of deposits made by rural poor.
The Ministry of Finance took a decision to
establish the bank at a meeting on August 1. l

‘Committee formed to
ensure discipline
in capital market’
n Tribune Business Desk
The government has taken initiative to bring
back discipline in the country’s capital market by ensuring better coordination among
the market related bodies, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith in parliament yesterday.
He mentioned a committee has already
been formed to with the representatives
from Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms,
Insurance Development and Regulatory
Authority (IDRA) Bangladesh, Micro-credit Regulatory Authority, and Department of
Cooperatives, reports UNB. l

Business
Nokia: a lesson in how high-tech
flyers can fall fast

4

DHAKA TRIBUNE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013

n AFP, Helsinki
In just five years Nokia fell from dominating
the mobile phone industry to abandoning
the handset business, a swift fall from grace
with lessons for market leaders.
The story of Nokia, now at the toughest
stage of the restructuring cycle, is a particularly salutary business case about the
fast-moving, high-risk, high-reward, tech
sector for hip consumer goods.
The rapid decline, which is ending with
the 5.44bn euro ($7.5bn) sale of the mobile
phone division to Microsoft, owed much to
Nokia growing too big, too fast and its management getting drunk on their own success,
analysts say.
Looking back after years of Apple iPhone
dominance, some may have difficulty in recalling that Nokia, in its heyday in 2007 took
more than 50% of the world market for early
smartphones.
“They had become arrogant at Nokia
and as a result they were too slow to react
to changes in the world around them,” Petri
Rouvinen, a researcher at the economic
think tank ETLA, told AFP.
The technology of the iPhone upended
the mobile handset business. It also highlighted the critical importance in any business, but particularly in the high-tech sector,
of getting the timing right.
Not only did the iPhone, with its touch
screen, become a hot fashion item worldwide, but also the operating system with
paid-for applications invented a new revenue stream for Apple.
When Google’s Android took off in 2009,
it became clear that handset manufacturers
had lost dominance to the operating systems
which generated revenue from applications
sold to users.
Commenting on the business lessons,
Rouvinen said: “Since 2007 it’s no longer
possible to consider telecommunications,
consumer electronics and computers as separate sectors. Now there’s just one industry
and it’s digital.”
That is where Apple had an all-important
lead: it brought the right hardware and software together at just the right time.
“If Apple had shut down its heavily
loss-making PC business in 2000, it would
never had been able to launch iPod, iTunes,
iPad etc,” said Kuittinen.
Nokia’s management was aware that a
digital revolution was underway but in a recent book it’s former chief executive Jorma
Ollila said the company peaked too soon - investing heavily in smart phone technology
before operators were ready to offer services.
Analysts said another lesson is to have
the appropriate expertise on the board. They
said that Nokia had suffered from a culture
of sycophancy towards Ollila - at the helm for
14 years until 2006.
High-tech sector ‘turmoil will continue’
“During times of transition, the board
must have real industry experts -- not random executives,” said Tero Kuittinen at Alekstra consultancy. He held that Ollila had been
surrounded by “sycophants who had no

A file photo shows a company flag outside the flagship store of Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia in Helsinki.In just half a decade Nokia went from
dominating the mobile phone industry to exiting the handset business, a swift fall from grace that holds lessons for other companies
AFP

‘During times of transition, the
board must have real industry
experts – not random executives,
said Tero Kuittinen at Alekstra
consultancy. He held that Ollila had
been surrounded by sycophants
who had no competence to address
software challenges’
competence to address software challenges.”
Nokia kept developing its Symbian operating system but was slow to introduce
touchscreen capability.
In 2010 it made a partnership with Intel
to develop a different operating system, but
abandoned this after a year and turned to Microsoft’s new mobile Windows platform.
Nokia is just one example of the high
stakes in high-tech consumer goods.
Telecommunications equipment manufacturers Ericsson and Motorola suffered a
similar fate and sold their handset business-

es after being overtaken by innovation.
Canadian firm BlackBerry is the latest example of a market leader fallen by the wayside.
Sony, which picked up Ericsson’s handset business, has also had difficulty making
money out of mobile despite its consumer
electronics pedigree.
Companies sometimes need to make
tough, radical choices to refocus their business.
Analysts say that the response adopted by
Nokia is to develop the profitable mobile network equipment segment with Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN).
“Now Nokia can concentrate on its other
business - NSN,” said Rautanen, adding to
speculation about what the company might
do with the 5.44bn euros from Microsoft.
Credit rating agency Moody’s said recently that Nokia had emerged a winner from
the sale, gaining much needed revenue and
off-loading a loss-making business.

But the agency added that it will not be
easy to reposition the company as a credible
actor in an industry with very short product
life-spans and rapid changes.
Nokia was already a business case of how
to engineer corporate transformation.
The company started as a wood pulp mill,
then bought a rubber business making boots
and tyres. A cable business led to Nokia venturing into electronics and then telecommunications.
When
mobile
telecommunications
boomed in the early 1990s, Nokia sold the
other business to focus on handsets and networks.
Rouvinen said the conditions which led
to the downfall of Nokia and others are not
likely to change soon.
“The fact that so much happened in only
five years does not mean that the next five
years will see the same turmoil,” he said.
“But I predict that the turmoil will continue
at the same or even at accelerated speed.” l

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Business

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013

5

Philips: a phoenix with lessons for
industrial lame ducks
n AFP
Back in 1978 in a boardroom near Lake Geneva, a bunch of nervous Philips inventors
demonstrated a device that was to revolutionise the entertainment industry for the
next three decades.
Called the “Pinkeltje” after a small Dutch
gnome in a children’s story, the device performed flawlessly - and so the world’s first
Compact Disc (CD) player was born.
Thirty-five years later the Netherlands’
Philips, once one of Europe’s best-known
brands for radios and televisions, is ditching
the consumer electronics business that used
to be its bread and butter, and is thriving.
The Philips story is a business case of how
a leading global industrial group, with leading technology, went through several rocky
years of restructuring, and found a successful strategy to re-invent itself in time.
Now the company is reaping the rewards
of emerging from the restructuring cycle.
In January, Philips announced the sale
of its lifestyle entertainment branch, which
makes stereos and DVD players, after selling
its troubled TV-making arm in 2012.
In February, Philips said it intended to
drop the word “Electronics” from its name to
indicate its shift in strategy.
Faced with dwindling margins and fierce
competition from Asia, the manufacturer
born in southern Dutch city Eindhoven is refocusing on high-end health care, space-age
lighting and the global explosion of a middle

class interested in healthy living.
This example of transformational strategy
is working, analysts say. Profits are strong despite the recent financial and eurozone debt
crises, and in a high-stakes roller-coaster
climate for high-tech companies which has
claimed high-flyers such as Nokia of Finland
and BlackBerry of Canada.
Last month, Philips announced that its
third-quarter profits jumped almost threefold from the equivalent 2012 figure, to 282m
euros ($380m) this year.

‘Of course I’m nostalgic, but
technology simply evolves, the
whole world is changing. You have
to change with it to stay in the
competition’
The latest results were even driven by sales
of household appliances in the emerging
markets from whence came much of the new
competition which threatened Philips.
Marc Schauten, assistant finance professor at the Erasmus School of Economics in
Rotterdam, said the company is doing well
because “they made the shift into areas
where they really have a competitive advantage.”
“Combined with the fact that they involve
their clients (in development) and the reliability of their products they really have the
cutting edge,” he told AFP.
At Theodoor Gilissen bank in Amsterdam,
senior analyst Tom Muller said: “It was a

tough choice for Philips to exit consumer
electronics.”
He added: “This segment was one of its
old pillars.” But competition had become
“murderous, with all kinds of Asian producers on the market,” he told AFP.
Even Asian giants such as Japan’s Sony,
Panasonic and Sharp have been undergoing major restructuring to keep up in the
low-margin television business.
Over the last two years Philips “has taken decisive steps to move away from lowgrowth, low-value businesses,” the company’s chief executive Frans van Houten said in
London in September.
Putting the world of science fiction in surgeon’s hands
The company is now focused on three
segments: healthcare, lighting and consumer well-being.
Nowhere is the shift in Philips more visible than in its healthcare division, which
now accounts for about 43% of investments.
Philips has seen a steady rise in full-year
figures for its healthcare solutions, from
6.6bn euros in sales in 2007 to a staggering
9.9bn euros last year.
From innovative operating theatres to
remotely-monitored Intensive Care Units,
Philips has clinched a series of mega-deals
with hospitals around the world to provide
medical equipment.
Analysts draw another lesson from the
case: Philips is constantly collaborating with
smaller innovative companies, such as Isra-

el’s RealView Imaging to develop 3D holographic projections for surgeons.
The system was used for the first time last
month, bringing the world of sci-fi films into
the reality of saving lives.
Another lesson, in Philip’s case, is to build
on positions which have strong potential.
Philips shipped its first lightbulb shortly
after being founded in 1891 and the company
today pins its hopes on innovative lighting
ideas such as light-emitting diode (LED).
As eco-friendly LED technology becomes
more popular, lighting everything from hospital operating theatres to headlights on the
latest cars, Philips expects to benefit: it owns
most of the world’s LED patents, thanks to
years of research and development.
Changing to compete
The third prong of Philips’ new strategy lies in consumer well-being products,
including ingenious kitchen appliances to
service humanity’s growing obsession with
healthy living.
“We see a world with a growing middle
class,” CEO Van Houten said in his London
presentation.
Philips has been forced to make tough
choices, but people such as Hans Mons, one
of the original demonstrators of the “Pinkeltje” in 1978, is philosophical about the decision to drop consumer electronics.
“Of course I’m nostalgic, but technology
simply evolves, the whole world is changing.
You have to change with it to stay in the competition,” he said. l

File photo shows a doctor walking past a screen displaying the “Hospital environment cockpit” at the Dutch Royal Philips Electronics Hospital research facility at its Eindhoven-based Research Laboratories

Putin’s failure damning Russia
to low growth trap
n AFP, Moscow
Russia’s failure to significantly change its
energy-dependent economic model under
President Vladimir Putin is consigning the
country to potentially decades of low growth
and eroding its status as a top emerging
economy.
The Russian economy ministry on Thursday dramatically confirmed what was obvious to many, by downgrading its estimate of
Russia’s average growth to 2030 to a paltry
2.5%, a far cry from over seven percent rates
in the early Putin years.
“The pace of Russia’s economic growth
will fall behind the global average in the
forecast period,” admitted Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev.
This year even Russia’s official forecast
puts 2013 growth at just 1.8%. But most worrying for the Kremlin is that the weakness
cannot just be blamed on external factors but
stems from domestic shortcomings.
‘One of the biggest underperformers’
The Russian economy faces a daunting
list of troubles - a declining population, the
re-emergence of the United States as a rival
energy superpower due to shale gas, and the
government’s colossal spending on defence
that stretches the budget.
These factors are compounded by Russia’s failure to stimulate private enterprise,
reform the judicial system, improve labour
productivity and turn the Russian economy
into more than a lumbering energy producer.
Russia’s weakness this year alone can be
linked to this failure, which has damaged the
investment climate, economists say.
The revisions by the economy ministry
were the “clearest signal yet that Moscow believes that economic weakness over the past
year has been structural rather than cyclical
in nature,” said Neil Shearing, Chief Emerging Markets Economist at Capital Economics.
“Without a major shift in policy we suspect that Russia will go from being one of the
world’s fastest growing economies to one of
its biggest underperformers.”

‘Five percent’ annual growth if reform

The forecasts by his own ministry made
Putin’s aim of Russia becoming one of the
world’s top five economies by 2020 look almost laughable and also undermined its credibility as a member of the BRICS groups of
supposedly fast-growing emerging markets.
An October survey of 21 top economists by
Russia’s Higher School of Economics (HSE)
showed not only a low consensus forecast of
1.6% growth this year, but also growth expectations of three percent or less for every year
up to 2022.
“Three percent growth, which would
have seen unjustifiably low until recently
now seems almost unreachable,” said Sergei
Smirnov, deputy director of the HSE’s Development Institute.
He said that forecasts of “a decade of lean
years” would mean growth of 29% in the decade
from 2013-2022, making a mockery of the government’s ambition to double GDP in 10 years.
Russia’s central bank, which has long kept
a hawkish eye on inflation, on Friday warned

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow
about Russia’s growth prospects after keeping key interest rates unchanged at 5.5%.
“Due to weak investment activity and
the slow recovery of external demand, the
Central Bank expects low Russian economic
growth rates to remain in the medium-term
perspective,” it said.
The International Monetary Fund warned
Russia in October that unless more was done
to address reform, growth in the medium
term would be no more than 3.5% due to
Russia’s weak investment climate.
But it said that Russia could achieve medium-term growth of 5% with reform. “Under a reform scenario, Russia’s medium-term
growth could rise considerably,” it said.
Post-Soviet spare capacity used up
Putin built his popularity on giving many
Russians a new prosperity after the torrid
1990s. According to the IMF, this meant that
since 2000 Russia has increased its per capita
income from 33 to 51% of the OECD average.

AFP

But Russia was helped in the period up to the
2008-2009 global financial crisis by two one-off
factors -- unusually high oil prices and the using
up of the spare capacity created by the dismantling of the inefficient Soviet economy.
But this capacity has now been used up,
with no slack.
The IMF forecasts growth of just 1.5% in
2013 with a pick-up to three percent in 2014.
Troublingly for the Kremlin, the IMF says the
economy is working at close to full capacity
with inflation and employment high.
“The activation of spare capacity and rising oil prices that drove a decade of average
annual growth in excess of five percent are
not replicable,” the IMF said in a report.
With Putin set to stay in the Kremlin until
at least 2018 - and maybe even 2024 if he seeks
another mandate - the Russian authorities
will want to ensure a maximum of economic stability to prevent handing a new cause to
the still-nascent protest movement. l

China builds
expectations of
reforms at key
meeting
n AFP, Beijing
Chinese state media yesterday raised expectations for major reforms at a Communist
Party meeting which is setting the course for
the world’s second largest economy over the
next decade.
Leaders on Saturday began a four-day
meeting, known as the Third Plenum, to
chart the country’s future as it faces a series
of challenges ranging from environmental
degradation to a widening income gap.
In a front-page editorial, party mouthpiece
the People’s Daily praised past economic reforms for bringing prosperity to the world’s
most populous country and called for more.
“China needs to deepen reform ... opening up on all fronts in order to forge ahead,” it
said, but added the country faced an “uphill
road” as it seeks to address new challenges.
Analysts say China remains committed to
economic reform, launched more than three
decades ago in the communist country, but
the pace slowed under the previous leadership of President Hu Jintao.
The new leaders, President Xi Jinping
and Premier Li Keqiang, have in recent days
raised expectations for economic reform.
But few details have emerged from the secretive meeting which ends Tuesday.
The economy expanded an annual 7.7% for
all of 2012, the worst performance since 1999.
Although economic growth rebounded to
7.8% year-on-year in the third quarter of this
year, officials say China must adjust to slower
development to carry out structural changes.
“In a society with rapid transformation
and accumulating contradictions... every
step we take towards the peak is a perilous
climb that bears risk and even crisis,” the
People’s Daily said.
Although economic changes are on the
agenda for the party meeting, officials and
state media say, Western-style political reforms have been ruled out.
But in a rare challenge to the ruling Communist Party, supporters of jailed politician
Bo Xilai have established a new political party, one of the founders said Sunday.
Scholar Wang Zheng said the party was
set up on Wednesday to support the former
high-ranking official who was given a life
sentence for corruption in September.
Bo, the former Communist Party chief of
the city of Chongqing and a member of the
elite politburo, won admirers among the socalled “New Left” for a revival of “red” culture,
harking back to the days of leader Mao Zedong.
Chinese authorities view organisations
set up without express authorisation as illegal and have cracked down on similar groups
in the past.
Analysts have played down the prospect
of firm measures emerging from the party
meeting, since such gatherings tend to unveil general principles rather than concrete
policies.
“Expectations that detailed new policies
will be unveiled at the upcoming Third Plenum are likely to be disappointed,” research
firm Capital Economics said in a recent report. l